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Friday
Oct282011
Timeline: 1978
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 7:20PM Please Post Your Comments and Recollections about 1978. Be as detailed as possible, including dates and locations and individuals involved. With the help of the site administrator you can include links to documents that are to be uploaded to the Archives. These documents can also be photos and video clips. Some highlights of 1978 included: an announcement of the new organizing efforts appearing the in local DC LGBT press; early meetings that occurred in the DC-Baltimore area; a reception held for mayoral candidates in Washington, DC, at which Statehood Party candidate Hilda Mason attended; and the endorsement by the Coalition of Sterling Tucker for Mayor of DC.
Reader Comments (1)
My recollection is that this is the year that NCBG started organizing in the DC/Baltimore corridor. I responded to an article I saw in a local newsrag in DC, and went to a meeting, hosted in an apartment on 16th Street in the Dupont Circle Area, a couple of blocks north of Scott Circle, where I met Billy for the first time. My impression of him was that he was a charismatic leader in a progressive or even radical tradition. My bias was for more structure and organization than I observed, but then that is me. I was living in Alexandria, VA at the time, employed as an architect at Perkins & Will in DC. That year, DC was in the midst of a Mayoral election, and it offered the opportunity, which we took, to invite candidates to court the Black LGBT vote. I was most drawn to this because, I like many others felt that in a majority Black city, where the gay community was flexing its political power, Black LGBT where far too invisible. We suceeded in having a reception in an apartment on 16th street, close to Malcolm X Park, and Hilda Mason, the Statehood's Party candidate showed up. I recall it was necessary to turn off the lights in the apartment to address the need for many of those attending to be in the shadows. As a group we endorsed Sterling Tucker who lost the election to Marion Barry, the candidate backed by the white gay community.