Book Talk: C. Riley Snorton and Darius Bost — A Black Queer History of the United States

Watch author C. Riley Snorton and Darius Bost's book talk and reading at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.

The first-ever Black history to center queer voices, this landmark study traces the lives of LGBTQ+ Black Americans from slavery to present day

Gender and sexual expression have always been part of the Black freedom struggle

In this latest book in Beacon’s award-winning ReVisioning History series, Professors C. Riley Snorton and Darius Bost unearth the often overlooked history of the Black queer community in the United States.

Arguing that both gender and sexual expression have been an intimate and intricate part of Black freedom struggle, Snorton and Bost present historical contributions of Black queer, trans, and gender non-conforming Americans from slavery to the present day to highlight how the fight against racial injustice has always been linked to that of sexual and gender justice.

Interweaving stories of queer and trans figures such as:

Private William Cathay/Cathay Williams, born female but enlisted in the Army as a man in the mid-1860s

Josephine Baker, internationally known dancer and entertainer of the early 20th century who was also openly bisexual

Bayard Rustin, prominent Civil Rights activist whose well known homosexuality was viewed as a potential threat to the movement

Amanda Milan, a black trans woman whose murder in 2000 unified the trans people of color community,

This book includes a deep dive into the marginalization, unjust criminalization, and government legislation of Black queer and trans existence. It also shows how Black Americans have played an integral role in the modern LGBTQ rights movement, countering narratives that have predominantly focused on white Americans.

Through storytelling and other narratives, Snorton and Bost show how the Black queer community has always existed, regardless of the attempts to stamp it out, and how those in it continue to fight for their rightful place in the world.

C. Riley Snorton is professor of English Language and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and the author of Nobody Is Supposed to Know: Black Sexuality on the Down Low and Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity, which won numerous awards, including the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction, the Sylvia Rivera Award in Transgender Studies from the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, and an honorable mention from the American Library Association Stonewall Book Award Committee.

Darius Bost is associate professor of Black Studies and Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Bost is the author of the award-winning book, Evidence of Being: The Black Gay Cultural Renaissance and The Politics of Violence (University of Chicago Press, 2019).

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