Search Results
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Regal Theater
Regal Theater [Chicago Historical Society]
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The Nightlife in Bronzeville
The Nightlife in Bronzeville [Chicago Historical Society]
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45th Street
45th Street [Chicago Historical Society]
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Leo
Leo, 18, “I decided that I could act as I wished among the faggots, but among the straight people I had to act reserve. I have always swished quite a bit, and with Jam people I tried to act more manly but I was conscious of myself with Jam people. I…
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My Story of Fags, Freaks and Women Impersonators
“When they want to get married they go to a bull diggars ball, a bulldiggars marries them, put a mark or the fag, and they tells her next husband how many times she has been married. […] The women fucker, she fucks women like men, if she fucks your…
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Lester
Lester, 16, recalled he “would walk down the street in [his mother’s] clothes and the boys would say “what a sissy!” “I would get mad and would say: “I am not a sissy!” I am just a boy that likes to wear women’s clothes.” It made me very mad.”…
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Case of Arthur
The boys always called ma a sissy. Although I was not dressed as a girl, when my mother was away, I would put on my mothers clothes. My relatives and other people said that I looked like a girl. I swished very much as a child by my mother broke me of…
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Professor Ernest Burgess
University of Chicago Sociology Professor Ernest Burgess encouraged his students to analyze the experiences of African American homosexuals on the South Side throughout the 1930s. [Courtesy of the University of Chicago - Regenstein Library]
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Lucille Bogan
Blues Singer Lucille Bogan
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Bessie Smith
Blues Singer Bessie Smith
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Ma Rainey
Blues Singer Ma Rainey
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Prove It On Me Blues
In 1928, Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey, a South Side resident, stated in a song she wrote - entitled “Prove it on Me Blues" - that “she [wore] a collar an tie,” and “talk[ed] to the gals just like any old man.”
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Gladys Bentley in White Tux
Gladys Bentley was frequently harassed for wearing men's clothing.
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Gladys Bentley
Often dressed in men's clothes, Gladys Bentley played the piano and sang her own raunchy lyrics to popular tunes, while flirting with women in the audience.
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Sissy Man Blues
In “Sissy Man Blues,” a traditional tune recorded by numerous male blues singers, the singer demanded, “If you can’t bring a woman, bring me a sissy man.”
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Alberta Hunter
Alberta Hunter, who was very popular in South Side cabarets and lived in Bronzeville in the 1920s, recorded several queer-themed songs.
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The Social Evil in Chicago
Vice Commission of Chicago, The Social Evil in Chicago: A Study of Existing Conditions
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Map of the Levee District
Map of the Levee District. [Source: Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-37088).]
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Tony Jackson's Draft Card, Part 2
Tony Jackson's draft card. [Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.]
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Tony Jackson's Draft Card
Tony Jackson's draft card shows his birth date and his employer of the time "The Pekins Theater." [Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.]