After World War II, many gay people settled in Greenwich Village. Traditionally an artistic community, the Village offered gays an opportunity to form supportive social networks. They frequented the saloons along MacDougal Street, went to the beaches at Cherry Grove and Riis Park, and pretty much kept to themselves. Still, they were always at risk of being found out at their jobs or by their families. Early on, these social networks began taking political form and, by the late ’50s, the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis encouraged gays and lesbians to deal with the prejudice against homosexuals. Taking a cue from the antiwar, civil rights, and feminist movements, gays demanded equal rights. They did not want to be harassed any more; they wanted to be heard and respected. The single incident that marked the birth of the modern gay and lesbian movement was the Stonewall Inn rebellion on the weekend of June 27, 1969.
The Stonewall Inn at 53 Christopher Street was a speakeasy during prohibition, later a restaurant catering to weddings and banquets, and then a gay bar. Saloons serving homosexuals were denied liquor licenses in those years, and it was illegal for gays to gather anywhere. Gay bars paid off the police to stay open, but many were harassed anyway because they operated without licenses; police could close them down at will. The Stonewall’s kickbacks to the local cops and their Mafia vendors was reported to be $2,000 a week, but the bar took in nearly $12,000 every weekend.
The raid on the Stonewall was made by two cops, two undercover agents, and two policewomen who went inside to “observe the illegal sale of alcohol.” Once inside, the detectives called the Sixth Precinct on a pay phone for backup, and the arrival of the additional cops set off the incident. Patrons were herded out of the bar while cops, headed by Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine, were pelted by gays throwing everything they could find. Thirteen people were arrested.
The Stonewall riots started on Friday night, June 27, and ended Monday morning, with breaks in between for a victory celebration. The chalked message on the wall says, “To fight for our country, they invaded our rights.”
In the course of the raid, all the mirrors, jukeboxes, phones, toilets, and cigarette machines were smashed. Even the sinks were stuffed and overflowing.
The Village Voice was the only New York paper to cover the event, with Howard Smith writing from the inside and Lucian Truscott IV reporting from the outside; Truscott wrote that “Sheridan Square this weekend looked like something from a William Burroughs novel as the sudden specter of ‘Gay Power’ erected its brazen head and spat out a fairy tale the likes of which the area has never seen.”
June 27, 1969.
The windows of the Stonewall were boarded up with plywood and painted black after the riots. Members of the Mattachine Society as well as irate customers covered the windows with graffiti. The top statement refers to the fact that cops took payoffs from members of the mob who operated the illegal gay bars. Photographs taken over the weekend of June 27, 1969.
Inside the Stonewall Inn after the riots, the weekend of June 27, 1969.