Stonewall: A Footnote not to be Forgotten

HERITAGE RADIO NETWORK, QUEER THE TABLE -- Tune in to hear the stories of three pre-Stonewall era uprisings that took place in late-night restaurants that served as safe spaces for queer folks — the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, The Dewey’s Cafeteria Sit-In and the Cooper’s Donuts Riot. Marc Stein, the Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Professor of History, discusses these historic events. “When, for example, the gay movement adopted the slogan ‘Gay is Good,’ it was clearly based on ‘Black is Beautiful,’” Stein says. “And the Stonewall Riots themselves in 1969 — to me although there’s a gap, chronologically, between the Watts rebellion and the Stonewall Riots — there were summer riots across the United States in Black communities leading up to 1969. And so, it seems clear that that was a direct inspiration for Stonewall.”