Stonewall Inn significant event Stonewall riots
Uprising
The Stonewall uprising was a series of spontaneous, violent protests by members of the gay community against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Around 1:20 a.m., Seymour Pine of the New York City Vice Squad Public Morals Division and four other officers joined forces with two male and two female undercover police officers who were already stationed inside the bar. The lights on the dance floor flashed, as was the usual signal to alert patrons of the arrival of police. However, this time the routine raid did not go as planned. Because the patrol wagons responsible for transporting the arrested patrons and the alcohol from the bar took longer than expected, a crowd of released patrons and by-standers began to grow outside of the Inn. The crowd swelled as the night went on. Writer David Carter notes that the police officers eventually became so afraid of the crowd that they refused to leave the bar for 45 minutes.
The last straw came when a scuffle broke out when a butch lesbian in handcuffs was escorted from the door of the bar to the waiting police wagon several times. She escaped repeatedly and fought with four of the police, swearing and shouting, for about 10 minutes. Bystanders recalled that the woman, identified as Stormé DeLarverie, sparked the crowd to fight when she looked at bystanders and shouted, "Why don't you guys do something?!" After an officer picked her up and heaved her into the back of the wagon, the crowd became a mob and went "berserk": "It was at that moment that the scene became explosively violent."The police tried to restrain some of the crowd, and knocked a few people down, which incited bystanders even more. The riots went on to escalate to the point where the bar was on fire and the Tactical Police Force (TPF) of the New York City Police Department arrived to free the police officers who had barricaded themselves inside the bar. The TPF formed a phalanx and attempted to clear the streets. It took them until 4:00 in the morning to do so.
The events that took place that week at the Stonewall Inn led to the formation of some of the first radical gay activist groups in the U.S., such as the Gay Liberation Front and Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR). A year later, the first Christopher Street Liberation Day was held—a commemorative event consisting of a march from Greenwich Village to the Sheep Meadow in New York's Central Park. This became the inspiration and template for gay pride parades in the United States and in many other countries.After the riots
In late 1969, a few months after the uprising, the Stonewall Inn closed. In 1972, it reopened at 211 22nd Street in Miami Beach, Florida. In May 1973, two patrons of that venue filed a lawsuit against the local police chief, asserting malicious harassment. The Miami Beach location (reported as "Stonewall Discotheque") burned down shortly before 7:00 a.m. on March 2, 1974. Arson was suspected.Over the next 20 years, the original space in Manhattan was occupied by various other establishments, including a bagel sandwich shop, a Chinese restaurant, and a shoe store. Many visitors and new residents in the neighborhood were unaware of the building's history or its connection to the Stonewall riots. In the early 1990s, a new gay bar, named simply "Stonewall", opened in the west half of the original Stonewall Inn. Around this time, the block of Christopher Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues was co-named "Stonewall Place."
In June 1999, through the efforts of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and the Organization of Lesbian and Gay Architects and Designers, the area including Stonewall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its historic significance to gay and lesbian history. The area delineated included the Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park, and portions of surrounding streets and sidewalks. The area was declared a National Historic Landmark in February 2000.The building was renovated in the late 1990s and became a popular multi-floor nightclub, with theme nights and contests. The club gained popularity for several years, gaining a young urban gay clientele until it closed again in 2006, due to neglect, gross mismanagement, and noise complaints from the neighbors at 45 Christopher Street.In January 2007, it was announced that the Stonewall Inn was undergoing major renovation under the supervision of local businessmen Bill Morgan and Kurt Kelly, as well as the only female lesbian investor, Stacy Lentz, who ultimately reopened the Stonewall Inn in March 2007. Subsequently, regaining popularity and continuing to pay homage to its historic significance, the Stonewall Inn hosts a variety of local music artists, drag shows, trivia nights, cabaret, karaoke and private parties. Since the landmark passage of New York State's Marriage Equality Act the inn now offers gay wedding receptions as well. Kelly, Morgan, and Lentz have also been dedicated to incorporating various fundraising events for a host of LGBT non-profit organizations.
In June 2014, the Stonewall 45 exhibit, sponsored by the Arcus Foundation and the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, memorialized the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising with posters in the windows of Christopher Street businesses, including the Stonewall Inn. On June 23, 2015, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Stonewall as a city landmark, the first city location to be considered based on its LGBT cultural significance alone. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation kept up advocacy efforts for this over the tenures of two New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission chairs. In June 2016, U.S. President Barack Obama established a 7.7-acre (3.11 ha) area around the site as the Stonewall National Monument, the first LGBT U.S. National Park site. Christopher Park is owned by the NPS. The two buildings at 51 and 53 Christopher Street remain in private hands. On June 24, 2016, Governor Cuomo designated The Stonewall Inn a State Historic Site. Stonewall thus became the first LGBT-history site in the country listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, and the first LGBT-history site in New York City.