(dynamic music)
- If you ask, in what way did queer people
impact the Harlem Renaissance?
One might say that it couldn't have existed without them,
without us.
The thing that struck me was the discovery
that the most luminous luminaries
of the Harlem Renaissance were all gay and lesbian.
To be Black and gay, to be a double negative in America,
is more than a notion.
And was like being a part of a secret society.
And that's one of the things that makes this so interesting
to me is that it is both the first time in American history
when you have African-Americans and Whites interacting
in a non-clandestine way.
- Something thrilling was happening in New York City
at the dawn of the 20th century.
Thousands of Black folks made their way
to a redeveloping neighborhood called Harlem.
And a cultural revolution was born.
The Harlem Renaissance, or the New Negro movement
as was often referred to at the time,
produced monumental works from poets,
singers, artists, and intellectuals.
Langston Hughes, Josephine Baker, Count Basie,
and Billy Holiday were just some
of the visionaries who gave voice to Black identity,
and illuminated the struggles of a segregated world.
While many people know about the works
and figures of the Harlem Renaissance,
what is less widely known is how many
of those luminaries were queer.
And how their queerness not only informed their work,
but contributed greatly to the impact
of such a formative period in American consciousness.
Harlem historian, Michael Henry Adams,
tells us how the oft forgotten queer history
of the Harlem Renaissance is inseparable
from the achievements of the movement.
I'm Peppermint, and this isn't just our history,
this is legendary.
- If you ask in what way did queer people
impact the Harlem Renaissance?
One might say that it couldn't have existed without them,
without us.
Gay people, I think because of the opportunity
that Harlem represented,
and also because of having some knowledge
that there were other gay people here,
were inclined to flock here.
To try to discover community and to make common cause.
And so this concentration of people meant that
some of the brightest lights
of the Harlem Renaissance were gay.
So of course, near the top of the list is Langston Hughes.
And then you have Countee Cullen, his friend the poet.
And then you have Wallace Thurman, who was a novelist.
So much of the biases and racism that exist
in the broader culture exist amongst gay people.
One did have this kind of a situation where,
irrespective of race, being gay and lesbian was like
being a part of a secret society.
The thing of it is when you're talking about
African-Americans who are gay,
they've all got some relation
who desperately want them to be straight.
And so, there are even people who try to infer
that James Baldwin is straight.
There's Langston Hughes descendants,
who try to infer that he was straight.
And then there are these people,
they try to infer that Dorothy West was straight.
(gentle music)
I'm interested in landmarks that represent
not just people of color, but also LGBTQ+ people.
Because both groups are the same
in terms of the fact that with marginalized people
you tend to have our history eviscerated, erased.
And there are no more tangible reminders of history,
I think, than buildings where people lived,
and loved, and worked, and worshiped.
And therefore, for people to be able to see these places
where the greats of the past lived,
is I think very impactful.
New York, 130 odd years ago, was as racist
and segregated as every other part of America.
And after the riot of 1900 in West Side of New York
a lot of African-Americans who lived on the West Side,
as a consequence of the riot, wanted to move somewhere else.
And then you had Harlem,
which in anticipation of the Broadway IRT subway,
which was first announced in the 1890s.
In anticipation of the completion of the subway
you had all these developers who were
building new tenement buildings,
and new first-class apartment houses.
Anticipating that, for the first time,
you could have working class people live
at some distance from where they lived,
and economically be able to get to work quickly.
Black people came here in such, came to Harlem,
in such fast numbers, with it being estimated
that by 1920 there was somewhere around
half a million African-Americans living in Harlem.
That it was appreciated by just about everyone
that Harlem would remain a Black community
which at the time was usually referred to
as the Negro Renaissance,
the Negro Renaissance of the New Negro.
Most historians say, well that occurred in 1925.
And it occurred specifically because Alain LeRoy Locke,
this African-American gay philosopher
who headed the philosophy department at Howard University.
That he edited a Harlem issue
of this magazine called Survey Graphic.
Most of the contributors were Black.
And all of the contributions were about
Black people in Harlem.
And then in '21 I think it is,
you had the Broadway musical Shuffle Along,
that opened in Harlem.
Many people say that that is the event
that launched the Negro Renaissance.
From Whites coming to Harlem to see the show,
and to become entranced by jazz.
And wanting to venture to that wild side that was Harlem
to experience sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
Except rock and roll was Jazz.
(upbeat music)
African-American clergyman were just revolted
by all of the prostitution, the gambling,
and drinking that was allowed to occur in Harlem.
And they preached against it.
They said that White people like to come to Harlem
in order to give their morals a vacation.
They complained bitterly about all the nightclubs,
like the Cotton Club, that opened up there.
And all of the gay clubs that opened up on West 133rd Street
between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
But, on the reverse side of the coin, there was the reality
that those elicit clubs provided venues
for African-American entertainers,
and brought to light the talents of Andy Razaf,
and Josephine Baker, and Lena Horne, and Billy Holiday,
the singer Jimmy Daniels.
So, but for the Cotton Club, or the Alhambra,
or the Clam House, there would be no Gladys Bentley,
there would be no Moms Mabley.
(upbeat music)
- Who's the Wolf?
- Billy.
He's the owner of the club.
- Why they calls him the Wolf?
- 'Cause he eats his own kind.
- What that mean?
- One of the difficulties that queer African-Americans have
is in essence reclaiming our history,
reclaiming a history which many African-Americans
would like to obliterate, that we embarrass them.
To be Black and gay, to be a double negative in America,
is more than a notion.
For me, these figures who lived in Homo Harlem
are just so heroic, as well as exemplary,
because they managed to share their truth
despite all of the compulsion to do otherwise.
Sometimes, like Langston Hughes and Dorothy West,
they managed to do it without getting married for instance,
and passing in that way.
Sometimes, like Richard Bruce Nugent, or Countee Cullen,
marrying someone and having an accommodation
made it easier for them to be their true selves.
So I'm very proud to be descended from such people
who had such a great impact on the world
that they're still being talked about today.
Perhaps the most famous gay venue in Harlem
was the yearly masquerade ball
given by the Hamilton Lodge Odd Fellows.
But this was one night where
because the Hamilton Lodge Odd Fellows would get
a license from the police, where people could come
and fulfill their greatest, one might even put it,
fulfill their greatest reality,
and be who they were, or who they wanted to be.
Locally in Harlem, it was referred to as the Faggots Ball.
And people would gather in crowds to watch
as limousines would drive up.
You know, these Black queers, they were very clever.
They, if they had friends who worked for undertakers
they would borrow their limousines to drive people.
The moment the ball was over, they would begin saving up
and collecting things to make
their costume for the next year.
♪ I don't know how it done happened ♪
One of the things that's fascinating
for me as an historian is how, you know,
you go back in history and what do you discover?
Well, the most interesting thing you discover
when you look at the past is you discover yourself.
You know, we're all very vain,
and egocentric, and we almost imagine that
no one like us ever lived before.
But you go and you look in history,
and you find there you are,
and people like you who lived before,
and are motivated in the same sort of way.
♪ My honey you can be certain ♪
♪ I didn't mean to go hurtin' ♪
♪ And I ain't gonna anymore ♪