Harlem Takes the Drag Ball To New Heights

Harlem Takes the Drag Ball To New Heights

A New York Times clipping reports that African American LGBTQ activity "bloomed" during the 1920s and 1930s in Harlem, Greenwich Village, Mid-town Manhatten, and near the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Of particular interest in the clipping are two notations: 1) Countee Cullen, like other African American LGBTQ luminaries of the Harlem Rennaissance, felt compelled to hide their sexual and gender identities as members of the Salem United Methodist Church; and 2) they would gather at the Hamilton Lodge where they would attend political events, banquets, church sermons, lectures, pageants, as well as an Annual African American drag ball, initiated in 1869, that drew 8,000 black and white onlookers.

Harlem World, The Legendary Hamilton Lodge Ball Home At The Rockland Palace Dance Hall In Harlem 1920’s.
https://www.harlemworldmagazine.com/the-legendary-hamilton-lodge-ball-home-at-the-rockland-palace-dance-hall-in-harlem/

Biederman, Marcia. "A Journey to an Overlooked Past." Clipping. 2000. Digital Transgender Archive, https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/6d56zw90r (accessed November 25, 2022).

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salem_United_Methodist_Church_211_West_129th_Street.jpg