![#Repost @leslielohmanmuseum with @get_repost
・・・
#Juneteenth celebrates African-American freedom from slavery. It commemorates the (intentionally) late reading of federal orders by General Gordon Granger in the city of Galveston, Texas, on 19 June 1865, proclaiming that enslaved people in Texas were free— slavery had ended 2.5 year earlier in the former Confederate states, including Texas. This Juneteenth we are reflecting on William Dorsey Swann, one of the first self-identifying drag queens, as well as many other courageous formerly enslaved people who were also some of the first gay liberation activists.
.
. “It was April 12, 1888 when the police burst through the door of the two-story residence in northwest Washington, D.C., just half a mile from the White House, they discovered dozens of black men dancing together there, wearing silk and satin dresses [...]. Most of them were former slaves or the children of slaves”, writes Channing Gerard Joseph. Joseph uncovered Swann’s story when he found an article in “The Washington Post” (April 13, 1888) titled “Negro Dive Raided. Thirteen Black Men Dressed as Women Surprised at Supper and Arrested.” The story details an incident where Swann was arrested during a brawl with police. “The fight was also one of the first known instances of violent resistance in the name of LGBTQ rights,” says Joseph. Swann was born into slavery in 1858 in Maryland. Freed from slavery in 1862, he went on to establish a culture of drag balls Washington, not unlike those still thriving today. .
.
Juneteenth celebrates freedom in defiance of systemic racism, police brutality, funding for the prison industrial complex, historic redlining, and numerous other forms of oppression. .
.
[Images: (L) William Dorsey Swann. James Gardiner Collection-creative commons license. (R ) The Washington Post” (April 13, 1888) “Negro Dive Raided. Thirteen Black Men Dressed as Women Surprised at Supper and Arrested.” The National Republican via The Library of Congress]](https://paulwongprojects.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins
Error: Access Token for paulwongprojects is not valid or has expired. Feed will not update.
There's an issue with the Instagram Access Token that you are using. Please obtain a new Access Token on the plugin's Settings page.
If you continue to have an issue with your Access Token then please see this FAQ for more information.