“It Aint Misbehavin” Gay Black and Sometimes White Harlem 1920’s

Written by GMCSF Chorus Member, Tim Yarbrough. Published by GMCSF. 

The Volstead Act, better known as the National Prohibition Act, enforced the 18th Amendment's ban on alcohol in America on January 12, 1920. This attempt to apply governmental control to an individual's personal choices created criminals out of everyone who consumed alcohol. The change resulted in a general disregard for the law, especially by those who disagreed with the tenets of the Temperance movement. Instead of stopping the use of alcohol, it rapidly increased consumption, establishing opportunities for people to take advantage of the new black market in the production, distribution, and sale of intoxicating spirits. It proved to be a profitable enterprise, birthing organized crime and mob bosses like the infamous Al Capone. The violent gang wars to control the money flow contributed to the reversal of this law with the passage of the 21st Amendment to the US Constitution over 13 years later. The parties and merriment were supposed to end when they enforced the prohibition. Instead, it gave birth to the period now known as the "Roaring 20s". It proved to be one of the most transformational chapters in US history, changing the lives and attitudes of every member of society. 

The phrase "speak softly shop," meaning a "smuggler's house," appeared in a British slang dictionary published in 1823. The similar term "speakeasy shop," denoted a place with unlicensed liquor sales, appeared in a British naval memoir written in 1844. In the United States, a newspaper article from March 21, 1889, refers to "speakeasy" as the name used in the Pittsburgh-area town of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, for "a saloon that sells without a license." Speakeasies were so-called because of the practice of speaking quietly about such a place in public, when inside, not to alert police or neighbors. A familiar American anecdote traces the term to Kate Hester, who ran an unlicensed bar in the 1880s in McKeesport.

In January of 1920, there was an explosion of these secret meeting places in every town in the country. The large urban areas had thousands upon thousands in existence, with actual numbers never known because of the secretive nature of the business. Within these hidden spaces, we saw the blending of races, classes, and people at all levels of society. These newly formed clubs brought together people from all walks of life. The marginalized people expressing their sexuality, musicians, entertainers, social elites, celebrities, politicians, working-class Blacks, and upper-class, White, cis-gendered, gay, and straight alike all rushed to be a part of this new progressive way of living. Leading this transformation were people who lived on the fringe of society with no language but their own to describe themselves. Today, this oppressed tribe of individuals is still working to develop the vocabulary to explain to others who they are as part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a homosexual subculture, uniquely African American in substance, began to shape in New York's Harlem, the so-called "Harlem Renaissance." This period in time has long been recognized as a seminal moment in African American history. It was also a significant moment in the history of gay Americans in that Black lesbians and gay men and the interracial gay social networks they created played a key role. The literary renaissance and music of the blues and jazz in the clubs made Harlem famous in the 1920s. Female impersonator Phil Black, entertainer Frankie "half-pint" Jaxson, and singer George Hanna used elements of homosexuality in their professional acts and were still highly respected within the entertainment community.

Many bisexual and lesbian Black women, including Bessie Smith, Gladys Bentley, Jackie "Moms" Mabley, Alberta Hunter, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Josephine Baker, and Ethel Waters, found their fame on the stages of Speakeasies and Rent Parties, popular during this time. However, nearly most women adopted a heterosexual public persona and kept their love affairs with women a secret, but few openly acknowledged their sexuality. Gladys Bentley was an exception, as was Ma Rainey. Rainy was a short, squat, dark skin woman with a deep, earthy voice and a warm, friendly gold-toothed smile. Though married, the flamboyant entertainer was known to take women as lovers. Her memorable song, "Prove it on Me," speaks directly to her issue of lesbianism. She admits to her preference for male attire and female companionship; yet dares the audience to prove it to her.

White lesbians and gay men were among those invading Harlem. With its sexually tolerant population and its quasi-legal nightlife, Harlem offered an oasis to White homosexuals. But, for some, a trip to Harlem was part of a more significant rebellion against the prohibition era's conservative moral and political climate.

The Speakeasies were one of the vessels for societal change in the early 20th century of America. The community they built attracted White and Black homosexuals, creating friendships between people of disparate ethnic and economic backgrounds and building alliances for progressive social change. However, with the stock market crash of 1929 and the repeal of prohibition, the pendulum began to swing back to a more conservative nature of American society.

America has always progressed; two steps forward and one step back. We should look back to this time for inspiration as we continue the struggle to be visible, appreciated, contributing participants in the dream of what it means to be an America

 

The New York Times:

On Valentine’s Day in 1930, the Hamilton Lodge at the Rockland Palace in Harlem hosted a masquerade ball that was billed as a “rendezvous for the frail and freakish gang,” according to a pithy dispatch from The New York Age, the prominent Black newspaper of the era.

At the event, the Age report read, “it was difficult to distinguish sexes.” Women were “rigged up” in masculine attire, while “scores of males of pronounced effeminate traits gracefully disported themselves in beautiful evening gowns.”

Although many people associate the history of queer culture (a descriptor whose original negative usage has been transformed over time) in New York with Greenwich Village, events like the ball were not uncommon in Renaissance-era Harlem, where the L.G.B.T. population socialized in a variety of spaces, some of which were interracial. Their lives were frequently viewed as scandalous for the mores of the time.

Over roughly two decades, Harlem became home to Black artists, musicians, authors and socialites of all sexual stripes. In a 1993 essay, the Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. stated it bluntly: Harlem was “surely as gay as it was Black.”