Atlanta Since Stonewall, 1969-2009: A Local History

Introduction

Postcard, Atlanta, date unknown. Courtesy of the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center.

Atlanta Since Stonewall, 1969-2009: A Local History brings to life a segment of the city’s LGBTQ past, highlighting nationally recognized and little-known personalities, places, and events. Through photographs, printed materials, ephemera, and links to digital content, it presents diverse narratives of a marginalized people's lived experiences in the South’s gay epicenter, a Sunbelt metropolis dramatically shaped by race, religion, and class, as well as suburbanization and transportation. Animated by visual elements, these stories -- of adversity and triumph, struggle and pride, and loss and hope -- are inseparable from the history of city itself and highlight the ways LGBTQ Atlantans found a political voice and personal fulfillment and dignity.

Atlanta Since Stonewall, 1969-2009: A Local History is a collaborative project between the Atlanta History Center and the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History. Located in the Buckhead area, the Atlanta History Center includes one of the largest history museums in the Southeast, a research library and archives, historic homes, gardens, and a nature trail. Anchoring the west end of the Sweet Auburn historic district, the Auburn Avenue Research Library is the first public library in the Southeast to offer specialized reference and archival collections dedicated to the study and research of African American culture and history and of other peoples of African descent.

Exhibit Pages

Raid to Rally – 1969 to 1970

Parties and Pride - 1970 to 1979

AIDS and Politics - 1980 to 1989

Collective Power and Culture Wars - 1990 to 1999

National Agendas and Local Actions - 2000 to 2009

Timeline

Out in Atlanta

References

Chenault, Wesley and Stacy Braukman. Gay and Lesbian Atlanta. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2008.

Chenault, Wesley, Andy Ditzler, and Joey Orr. “Discursive Memorials: Queer Histories in Atlanta's Public Spaces.” Southern Spaces, [26 February 2010]. [1]

Chesnut, Saralyn, Amanda C. Gable, and Elizabeth Anderson. “Atlanta's Charis Books and More: Histories of a Feminist Space.” Southern Spaces, [3 November 2009]. [2]

Fleischmann, Jason and Jason Hardman. "Hitting Below the Bible Belt: The Development of the Gay Rights Movement in Atlanta." Journal of Urban Affairs, vol. 26, no. 4 (October 2004): 407-426.

Howard, John, ed. Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South. New York, NY: New York University Press, 1997.

———. Men Like That: A Southern Queer History. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Johnson, E. Patrick. Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South — An Oral History. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2008.

Pritchard, Eric Darnell. “’This is Not an Empty-headed Man in a Dress’: Literacy Misused, Reread and Rewritten in Soulopoliz.” Southern Communication Journal, vol. 74, no. 3 (July-September 2009): 278-299.

Sears, James T. Rebels, Rubyfruit, and Rhinstones. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001.

Kruse, Kevin. White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Contact

For more information contact Wesley Chenault, PhD, at 404.730.4001, ext. 203, or wesley.chenault@fultoncountyga.gov.

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