Black History Month: February 2012

OutHistory.org recommendations for Black History Month: February 2012

In addition to the recommended features listed below, be sure to search OutHistory.org for other "African American", "Afro", and "Black" history entries.

Bronzeville, Chicago

Cabello, Tristan. Queer Bronzeville : An Overview

Brown, Addie, and Rebecca Primus

Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus: "No kisses is like youres," 1859-1868

The love letters of two 19th-century Black women.

Clay, James

See section on the murder of Clay in John D'Emilio: drag and street fairy life; Chicago, 1965-1970

Creoli, Jan

Sodomy case: Creoli executed; New Netherland, June 25, 1646

Equiano, Olaudah

Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, 1789

Gunn, Sakia

Brief biography of the a fifteen-year-old Aggressive-identified African-American from Newark, New Jersey, who was fatally stabbed on the morning of May 11th, 2003.

Hansberry, Lorraine

Tristan Cabello: Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Hansberry: To "The Ladder," May, August 1957

Harris, Sherry

"In 1991 I made history by becoming the first openly gay African American lesbian to be elected to public office in the country."

Hines, Florence, Male Impersonator

Help OutHistory create a timeline and annotated bibliography on the life and career of this performer.

Holsaert, Faith S.: "Chosen Girl," 2003

An evocative story about a young white girl's perception of an interracial intimacy between her mother and a Black woman friend, set in Greenwich Village in the 1950s.

"Homosexuals being punished": Canon City, Colorado, photograph, 1900-1910

Photoograph: Black men, in straw hats and perhaps in dresses, at the State Penitentiary in Canon City, Colorado, push wheelbarrows, each with a large rock.

Jackson, Tony

Cabello, Tristan: Tony Jackson

Kelly, Trent

On Flickr take a look at "Hidden in the Open: A Photographic Essay of Afro American Male Couples"

An amazing, wonderful collection of 146 photos of Black men together, dating from the 19th century: they're photos about "romantic friendship", and intimacy between men, and once in a while the gaydar goes off loud and clear.

And on OutHistory.org see: Picturing African American Men with Men, another collection of photos.

Picturing African American Men with Men

Photographs of Black men with men, from the collection of John Ibson. See also: Kelly, Trent.

Rainey, "Ma"

Jonathan Ned Katz: Ma Rainey's "Prove It On Me Blues," 1928

Rustin, Bayard

D'Emilio, John: "Bayard Rustin in Chicago," 1951

Sewally, Peter

Katz, Jonathan Ned and Tavia Nyong'o: Visualizing the Man-Monster: Peter Sewally/Mary Jones, New York City, 1836

Nyong'o, Tavia. "The Man-Monster: A Sapphic Tale of 1830s New York", April 8, 2011

Smith, Bessie

Albertson, Chris: Lesbianism in the Life of Bessie Smith, 1925-1927

Van Dyke, Henry

Henry Van Dyke: October 3, 1928 - December 22, 2011

Wright, Richard

Fabre, Michel: "The Unfinished Quest of Richard Wright," 1993

Rowley, Hazel: "Richard Wright; The Life and Times," February 2008

Sinclair (Seid): "Wasteland," 1946

Wright provides a glowing blurb for a 1946 novel about a lesbian affirming her sexuality and her brother affirming his Jewish heritage.