Webinar slides. The 1920s Harlem Renaissance was open and inclusive of all people while the 1950s Lavender Scare decreased acceptance and visibility of LGBT people.

1. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Webinar 3:
Harlem Renaissance and
Lavender Scare
“Teaching LGBT History in Schools”
Rob Darrow, Ed.D.
June 2018
www.RobDarrow.us

2. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Recordings and Resources
• Recordings
• Harlem Renaissance Resources
• Lavender Scare Resources
• YouTube Lavender Scare Videos

3. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Webinar Structure
• Lecture / Discussion about Topic
• Interactive Activity
• Final Word from participants
• Assignment related time at end (not
recorded)

4. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Webinar Schedule
• June 12: Social Movements and Teaching LGBT
History
• June 19: Harlem Renaissance (1920s) and the
Lavender Scare (1950s)
• June 26: Legislation, Laws and Amendments
related to LGBT History
• July 3: No Webinar – Happy “Independence Day”
• July 10: Transgender History
• July 17: Presentations (All participate)

5. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
This is a Safe Space

6. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Remember: Difference
between
➢ Teaching LGBT history
➢ Advocating a lifestyle
➢ Promoting a religion
Note: Teachers have taught about Puritanism or
Muslim for years in history courses, but we don’t
promote it

7. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Some key historical
statements and
questions
• Evidence indicates that…
• If [some person] was alive today would
he/she/they identify as gay, lesbian,
bisexual or transgender?
• If Ma Rainey were alive today would she
have identified as bisexual?

8. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Quick Review
• Intro – Discussed U.S. history time periods and
LGBT history
• Social Movements – Discussed how the LGBT
rights movement fits with all other social rights
movements in history (e.g. civil rights, Latinx
rights, #MeToo, etc.)
• Any thoughts, insights or reflections on these
topics?

9. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Harlem Renaissance /
Lavender Scare
• 1920s – Increased LGBT visibility and acceptance
– Post Civil War
– More Americans in cities than farms for first time
– More wealth
– 18th Amendment – could consume alcohol, but not sell it
(lasted 13 years)
• 1950s – Decreased LGBT visibility and acceptance
– Post World War II; GI Bill (education and mortgages)
– Baby boom
– Increase economic wealth/movement to cities
– McCarthy / Anti-Communism era
– Cold War
– Civil Rights Movement

10. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Harlem Renaissance /
Lavender Scare
– Class insights:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lAV
0wcK2BSJ_1IevkHi2wGWlK1I-
1JKIAC5h95ybCwU/edit

11. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Imagine a Speakeasy in Harlem
New York - 1928

12. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Singer – Ma Rainey

13. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Music and Words

14. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
One story of the Harlem Renaissance:
Music and Words
• What does the song discuss?
• What does this tell us about the time
period called the Harlem Renaissance?
• “Prove it to Me Blues” – Ma Rainey with
the Tub Jug Washboard Band. 1928.
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRyaU
cVfhak

15. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Prove it to Me Blues – Ma Rainey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRyaUcVfhak
• Went out last night, had a great big fight
Everything seemed to go on wrong
I looked up, to my surprise; The gal I was with was gone
Where she went, I don't know. I mean to follow everywhere she goes;
Folks say I'm crooked. I didn't know where she took it
I want the whole world to know
They say I do it, ain't nobody caught me; Sure got to prove it on me;
Went out last night with a crowd of my friends
They must've been women, 'cause I don't like no men
It's true I wear a collar and a tie; Makes the wind blow all the while
Don't you say I do it, ain't nobody caught me
You sure got to prove it on me
Say I do it, ain't nobody caught me; Sure got to prove it on me
I went out last night with a crowd of my friends
It must've been women, 'cause I don't like no men
Wear my clothes just like a fan; Talk to the gals just like any old man

16. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
A little about Ma
Rainey:
“Mother of the Blues”
• 1886: Born Gertrude Pridgett in Georgia
• Parents were minstrel performers
• 1900: Singer at Springer Opera House
• 1904: Marries William “Pa” Rainey
• 1923: Recording with Paramount label and toured the
country singing
• Moved to Harlem, NY
• Close relationships with singer Bessie Smith, both could
be considered bisexual.
• 1925 – Arrested for a lesbian party
• 1939 – Dies in Georgia

17. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Harlem Renaissance:
Begins with the Great Migration
• Civil War (1860-1865) – South secedes, bloodiest war in
history, north wins, cross-dressing women fight.
• Amendments passed by northern states; southern states
had to agree in order to be readmitted to the Union:
– 13th Amendment (1865) – Banned slavery
– 14th Amendment (1868) – Defined rights of citizens
– 15th Amendment (1870) – Right to vote regardless of race,
color, or past servitude
• 1895 – Trial of Oscar Wilde in England for relationships with
other men. 2 year jail term.
• 1900: 90% of African American population of U.S. lived in
south
• 1918: End of World War I
• African Americans leave south because of de facto Jim
Crow laws

18. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Harlem Renaissance:
First Great Migration (1916-1930)
• Move to industrial north
• 200,000 African Americans to New York

19. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Harlem Renaissance:
“As gay as it was black”
• Cultural center of black writers, artists,
musicians, entertainers, photographers,
poets, and scholars.
• Black housing, organizations and
churches developed
• Most cities were segregated but not in
Harlem: Blacks and whites, gay and
straight, would interact without judgment.
• All races of people, including wealthy
Whites, would come to this area and
spend their money, which caused greater
economic prosperity.

20. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Harlem Renaissance:
Key People
• Langston Hughes
• Professor Alain Locke (openly gay)
• Zora Neale Hurston
• Countee Cullen
• W.E.B. Du Bois
• Carl Van Vechten (photographer)
• Claude McKay (writer)
• Duke Ellington (singer, musician)
• Billie Holiday (singer)
• Ma Rainey (singer)
• Other female singers: Bessie Smith, Gladys Bentley, Ethel
Waters

21. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
1920s: Annual “Faggot’s Ball”
Hamilton Lodge, NY. - 5000 Attendees
Beginning of drag in U.S.

22. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Harlem Renaissance
• Positive time for developing black culture
• Much of black culture traces its roots
back to the Harlem Renaissance.
• Accepting and inclusive of LGBT
• 1929: Stock Market Crash and beginning
of the Great Depression
• 1939-1945: World War II
• 1950s: The Lavender Scare

23. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Lavender Scare:
Government Set the Stage
• 1918 – Sedition Act – “May not criticize
the government.”
• 1919 – Militant anarchist bombs Attorney
General Mitchell Palmer’s home
• Palmer Raids: Rounds up “radicals and
immigrants”
• Person in charge of these raids was J.
Edgar Hoover, newly hired by FBI.

24. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Lavender Scare:
1950
• McCarthy Speech about Communists
• Response from government at a congressional hearing,
Undersecretary of Administration John Peurifoy: “No
communists, but have released 91 security risks…or
homosexuals.”
• Congressional Report: “Employment of Homosexuals and
Other Sex Perverts in Government.” The report concluded
that
“In the opinion of this subcommittee that homosexuals and
other sex perverts are not proper persons to be employed
in Government for two reasons; first, they are generally
unsuitable and second, they constitute security risks.”

25. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Lavender Scare: 1953.
Executive Order 10450: President Eisenhower
• Eisenhower elected and issues Executive Order
10450
• Dismiss from government service:
“Any criminal, infamous, dishonest, immoral,
or notoriously disgraceful conduct, habitual
use of intoxicants to excess, drug addiction,
sexual perversion, or financial
irresponsibility…”
• Investigations by FBI
(FBI Head: J. Edgar Hoover)

26. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
1952
• 1952 Immigration Act that barred
“aliens afflicted with “psychopathic
personality, epilepsy or mental defect”
and this included “homosexuals and
sex perverts.”
• In 1967, See Boutilier v. Immigration
and Naturalization based on 1952 law.

27. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Code Words
• Sexual deviants
• Security risk
• Moral weakness
• Shady characters

28. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Military: Blue Discharge or
“Blue Ticket”
• “homosexual proclivities.”
• "blue discharges"-- a middle ground between honorable
and dishonorable
• Homosexuality was considered a psychiatric condition
(1952 American Psychiatric Association).
• The discharges were often marked "HS" or some other
code for homosexual, which would effectively disqualify
the veteran from receiving any GI rights or benefits, and it
barred many discharged soldiers from getting civilian
jobs.
• By 1946 – In past 20 years, at least 5000 issued to
homosexuals
• Not an honorable discharge – no access to veteran
benefits or GI Bill after World War II.

29. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Frank Kameny
• 1925 – Born in NY
• 1941 – Joined Army
• 1956 – Harvard:
Doctorate in Astronomy
• 1957 – Hired by U.S.
Army Map Service –
Produced maps for U.S.
military

30. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Frank Kameny
• 1953: President Eisenhower
signs Executive Order 10450.
• “Immoral and sexual perversion
were a security risk – sexual
deviants” (In place until 1975).
• 1957: Kameny released from
government service
• 1960: Files lawsuit. Supreme
Court denies claim. First civil
rights claim based on sexual
orientation
• 1960: Forms Mattachine Society
in Washington DC to advocate
for gay people.

31. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Lavender Scare: The Movie
• Movie trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Cu
MkTSiB1A
• Lavender Scare Video -
https://youtu.be/0NrWTpPSvjA
• Further Reading/Online Links:
http://Queerhistory.pbworks.com

32. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Final Word from You
• A final thought or insight to share – one
or two sentences.
• See you next Tuesday
• Webinar Topics and Recordings

33. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/20/2018
Contact
• “Teaching LGBT History in Schools”
• Rob Darrow, Ed.D.
• www.RobDarrow.us
• Robdarrow@robdarrow.us