Robbins Library: The Stonewall Riots: A Library Guide

Press release from Robbins Library:

June 28, 2021

Picture by Rhododendrites

Robbins Library and the Town of Arlington have been busy this year celebrating Pride 2021. We can’t end the month without talking a bit about the historical event known as the Stonewall Riots or the Stonewall Uprising. Even though it took place over 50 years ago, its impact can be felt to this day. Starting as a protest against police harassment and discrimination, this event became a catalyst to the LGBTQ+ rights movement.

Continue reading to learn more!

“Stonewall riots, also called Stonewall uprising, was a series of violent confrontations that began in the early hours of June 28, 1969, between police and gay rights activists outside the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. As the riots progressed, an international gay rights movement was born.

In 1969 the solicitation of homosexual relations was an illegal act in New York City (and indeed virtually all other urban centers). Gay bars were places of refuge where gay men and lesbians and other individuals who were considered sexually suspect could socialize in relative safety from public harassment. Many of those bars were, however, subject to regular police harassment.

One such well-known gathering place for young gay men, lesbians, and transgender people was the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, a dark, seedy, crowded bar, reportedly operating without a liquor license. In the early morning hours of Saturday, June 28, 1969, nine policemen entered the Stonewall Inn, arrested the employees for selling alcohol without a license, roughed up many of its patrons, cleared the bar, and—in accordance with a New York criminal statute that authorized the arrest of anyone not wearing at least three articles of gender-appropriate clothing—took several people into custody. It was the third such raid on Greenwich Village gay bars in a short period.

This time the people milling outside the bar did not retreat or scatter as they almost always had in the past. Their anger was apparent and vocal as they watched bar patrons being forced into a police van. They began to jeer at and jostle the police and then threw bottles and debris. Accustomed to more passive behavior, even from larger gay groups, the policemen called for reinforcements and barricaded themselves inside the bar while some 400 people rioted. The police barricade was repeatedly breached, and the bar was set on fire. Police reinforcements arrived in time to extinguish the flames, and they eventually dispersed the crowd.

The riots outside the Stonewall Inn waxed and waned for the next five days. Many historians characterized the uprising as a spontaneous protest against the perpetual police harassment and social discrimination suffered by a variety of sexual minorities in the 1960s. Although there had been other protests by gay groups, the Stonewall incident was perhaps the first time lesbians, gays, and transgender people saw the value in uniting behind a common cause. Occurring as it did in the context of the civil rights and feminist movements, the Stonewall riots became a galvanizing force.”

Learn more

Source: “Stonewall riots.” Britannica Library, Encyclopædia Britannica, 6 Jun. 2019. library.eb.com/levels/referencecenter/article/Stonewall-riots/473397. Accessed 7 Jun. 2021.

[AMERICAN EXPERIENCE] STONEWALL UPRISING

Watch documentary here.

[FEDERAL REGISTER] ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STONEWALL NATIONAL MONUMENT

Christopher Park, a historic community park located immediately across the street from the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City (City), is a place for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community to assemble for marches and parades, expressions of grief and anger, and celebrations of victory and joy. It played a key role in the events often referred to as the Stonewall Uprising or Rebellion, and has served as an important site for the LGBT community both before and after those events.

[Continue Reading]

[NATIONAL PARK SERVICE] JOHNSON AND SYLVIA RIVERA

The LGBT Community Center National History Archive, Leonard Fink Collection (#26).

Johnson and Rivera recognized that many transgender people turned to sex work after being rejected by their families, and they faced additional hardships and dangers through being unsheltered. Johnson and Rivera opened the first LGBTQ+ (Lesbian Gay Transgender Bisexual Queer) youth shelter in North America, and these trailblazers became the first Trans women of color to lead an organization in the United States. [Continue Reading]

[Smithsonian Magazine] New York City Monument Will Honor Transgender Activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera

New York City Monument Will Honor Transgender Activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera

MORE RESOURCES

This project sets out to open a window onto the past through oral histories, personal stories, images, texts and memories concerning the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969 and its aftermath. This singularly important event was the catalyst for a worldwide LGBT rights movement. In collecting and presenting the documents on this site, the goal is to develop insight into the way culture constructs historical narrative; in this case, through the radical counterculture of the late 1960’s. My hope is that this resource will offer members of the community a greater appreciation of the diversity, complexity and uniqueness of LGBT experiences.

This set uses primary sources to explore the events preceding and surrounding the Stonewall Inn riots as well as the aftermath of the riots in the gay liberation movement of the 1970s and 1980s. These sources demonstrate the continuing influence of Stonewall on America’s LGBTQ community, the civil rights movement, and American politics in general.

Activities to help students learn about a significant moment in L.G.B.T.Q. history using contemporary articles, videos, photographs and The Times’s archive.

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This press release was produced by Robbins Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.