A Black Queer History of the United States

This illuminating account from gender studies scholars Snorton (Black on Both Sides) and Bost (Evidence of Being) showcases cultural moments and famous figures that have influenced the fight for Black and queer rights, and pinpoints ways in which “blackness, queerness, and transness indelibly shape[d] America’s national culture.” The authors argue that Black gender and sexuality became tethered to deviance during slavery, causing a tension that continues to affect understandings of queerness in the Black community and America more broadly. During the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras, Black leaders were asked or forced to hide their queerness, or else distance themselves from the civil rights movement. Queer Black activists found themselves excluded from fights for racial justice, as well as from the mainstream LGBTQ+ rights movement, where the focus on marriage equality failed to address more pressing concerns of people of color. But queerness, the authors argue, nonetheless found a unique foothold in the Black working class, where LGBTQ+ artists and drag performers emerged who would go on to shape the broader American entertainment landscape. Throughout, Snorton and Bost emphasize that Black queer and trans people persevered in “craft[ing] selves, communities, cultural expression, and political analyses that would appear to be impossible” given the obstacles. The result is an excellent window into a long-repressed past. (Jan.)