{"id":332293,"date":"2024-10-02T07:00:53","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T06:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.co.uk\/?p=332293"},"modified":"2025-01-29T13:41:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T13:41:47","slug":"black-history-month-lgbt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/community\/black-history-month-lgbt\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s time to bring Black LGBTQ+ history back into focus"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Black History Month, Abi McIntosh digs into the archives to shine a light on the queer Black elders we should all know and asks why their stories aren\u2019t common knowledge<\/span><\/p>\n

WORDS BY ABI MCINTOSH<\/strong>
\nHEADER DESIGN BY JACK ROWE<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>

This year marks the 76th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Windrush which docked in Tilbury, Essex in 1948. These dates are a reminder of the steady integration of <\/span>Caribbean culture is woven into the fabric of Black Britain which has, historically, been well documented. However, still, among the stories of Windrush, there are plenty of Black LGBTQIA+ names that many of us don\u2019t know. Ivor Cummings is just one of those.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cummings, who has been described as the \u201c<\/span>gay father of the Windrush generation<\/span><\/a>\u201d, was <\/span>of Sierra Leonean and British heritage and<\/span> an openly gay Black government official born in Hartlepool in 1913, who welcomed the newcomers as they arrived in England. As a senior official in the welfare department of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Cummings was in charge of <\/span>organising transport and helping to find temporary accommodation<\/span><\/a> for those who needed it. <\/span>Beyond his official capacity, <\/span>Cummings also stayed in touch with the arrivals once they had settled in the UK, regularly sending letters and receiving updates.<\/span><\/p>\n

I first learned about Cummings while being asked to lend my voice to an episode of <\/span>On the Record at The National Archives podcast<\/span><\/a> about the Windrush generation. I was overwhelmed when I heard about Cummings. I was shocked that a story I know so well, as a Jamaican with relatives who arrived on the Windrush, involved an openly queer Black man. I was angry that I\u2019d never been taught his name and that his story was one that I discovered by coincidence.<\/span><\/p>\n

The arrival of the Windrush generation is a well-known story and the omission of Cummings from it is an example of the ways Black queer people have been cut out of key moments of history. Cumminngs\u2019 role in helping people settle into their new life in the UK should be known outside of LGBTQIA+ circles and it shouldn\u2019t be something you learn 76 years after the fact.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By misrepresenting Black queer British people in history, notable figures, movements and places are completely erased. Cummings\u2019 voice was the first thing the new arrivals heard, and while the impact of the Windrush lives on, his name has been largely forgotten.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Among the stories of Windrush, there are plenty of Black LGBTQIA+ names that many of us don\u2019t know\"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>

UK Black History Month has been celebrated every October for nearly three decades, and while it\u2019s done a necessary job of spotlighting buried history, it’s fallen short of recognising the achievements of the Black LGBTQIA+ community in the UK. Over the decades, we\u2019ve continued to see a focus on North American <\/span>\u2013<\/span> not UK <\/span>\u2013<\/span> history and wider straight culture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Activist Marc Thompson argues that the LGBTQIA+ experience is regularly overlooked. \u201cBlack queer people are not seen in Black History Month, they are falling through the cracks,\u201d Thompson, a co-director of the non-profit The Love Tank, explains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As Thompson notes, this lack of education is hugely damaging. When I was coming out, before hashtags and social media celesbians, I turned to the internet searching for an image of queerness that looked like me. My painfully limited options were either Ellen DeGeneres or Jenny Schecter from <\/span>The L Word,<\/span><\/i> so, of course, I convinced myself that I was the only Black lesbian in England.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Years later, I stumbled upon articles about the Camden Black Lesbian Group, a centre that had existed near where I spent my weekends as a teenager. I soon realised that the community I was so desperately searching for had already been built for me, <\/span>but<\/span> I just didn\u2019t know it. The requirement to seek out our own LGBTQIA+ history, and not be steered towards it, is disappointing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For me, this lack of spotlighting further proved a political point \u2013 the stories of Black queer people in Britain, from the trivial to the trailblazing, have been sidelined in discussions of Black British history. And by overlooking these stories, we are only presented with a one-dimensional version of the facts, and we fail to learn the full story.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The stories of Black queer people in Britain, from the trivial to the trailblazing, have been sidelined\"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>

Queering Black British history<\/b><\/h2>\n

Author and journalist Paula Akpan experienced a similar feeling of frustration when she discovered that the <\/span>Black Lesbian and Gay Centre<\/span><\/a> (which was active throughout the 1980s and 1990s), set up to tackle the issues facing LGBTQIA+ people of colour, a short distance from her house in Peckham \u2013 something she had previously been unaware of. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day I was walking around these spaces, not knowing the significance in my personal history and also in the history of a community that I’m a part of, it feels like you’ve been robbed of so much,\u201d Akpan says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Queer history is absent from the narrative of Black Britain for many reasons. But, as Akpan argues, one of the main culprits is the way that Black British queer people have been \u201cmarginalised\u201d in the wider LGBTQIA+ movement and racial justice movements. <\/span>For example, queer issues were often overlooked in Black activist spaces and the nuances of race weren\u2019t paid attention to within LGBTQIA+ groups. <\/span><\/p>\n

This was acknowledged by people of intersecting identities at the time, with Black and South Asian women describing the \u201cinvisibility of lesbians in the Black community\u201d and \u201cthe lack of space\u201d for racialised women in a 1984 article published in the <\/span>Feminist Review<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Equally, there was also outright discrimination. One of the organisers of the UK\u2019s first-ever Pride march, Black and gay activist Ted Brown, has even spoken about how he left the Gay London Police Monitoring Group (now Galop) following a confrontation with a white member of the group who <\/span>used a racial slur<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

And while Brown is among the most prominent names in the UK\u2019s LGBTQIA+ rights movement, there will be countless other individuals who were sidelined in queer organisations due to the impact of racist attitudes like these <\/span>\u2013<\/span> and whose stories haven\u2019t been passed down. <\/span>But even if they aren\u2019t acknowledged in the history books today, that doesn\u2019t mean the work Black queer people did in LGBTQIA+ activist groups wasn’t impactful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly, Brown <\/span>helped to set up Black Lesbians and Gays Against Media Homophobia (BLAGAMH), a group who launched a campaign lobbying Black British tabloid <\/span>The Voice<\/span><\/i> to apologise for its reports on Black gay footballer, Justin Fashanu. <\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, Akpan notes that Black queer women in the 1970s and 1980s also organised into more focused collectives, such as the Black Lesbian Group, where the nuances of their multifaceted identities could be appreciated and \u201cthey could stand by issues that dealt with Blackness and womanhood in a way that understood that they were overlapping and occurring simultaneously.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Queer issues were often overlooked in Black activist spaces and the nuances of race weren\u2019t paid attention to within LGBTQIA+ groups\"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>

Uncovering new narratives<\/b><\/h2>\n

But if we move away from traditional ways of documenting history, and instead look at oral history and ordinary people, Black queer stories can be found. For example, I recently discovered the incredible story of a safe haven for Black gay men in Brixton. <\/span>Pearl Alcock<\/span><\/a> was a bisexual Jamaican artist who ran an underground bar (or shebeen) in Brixton in the basement of her women\u2019s clothing shop.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The shebeen, which later became a cafe, was a queer safe spot for many Black gay men who travelled from across London to have a drink and a dance, free from racism and homophobia. Alcock\u2019s story has been preserved by the people who knew her and although some might not deem Alcock\u2019s shebeen and cafe as activism, it\u2019s an important part of London\u2019s Black history which is being kept alive by ordinary people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, both Akpan and Thompson acknowledge individuals who impacted the Black queer community in the day-to-day. \u201cThere were everyday actors who poured into that community,\u201d says Akpan. \u201cWe don’t necessarily know their names, but we have their insight and we can build upon that.\u201d As Thompson puts it, \u201cpeople that just go about living their daily lives,\u201d are \u201ca part of history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to document perspectives like these, Thompson and writer Jason Okundaye created <\/span>Black and Gay, Back in the Day<\/span><\/a>: a digital archive and a <\/span>podcast <\/span><\/a>which documents the lives of Black queer people in Britain through photos submitted by the community. The project is focussed on counteracting the ways in which Black, queer experiences have been erased from celebrations of LGBTQIA+ History Month in the UK<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDuring LGBTQIA+ History Month in this country, the narratives, experiences and contributions of the Black, queer community are sorely missing and completely absent, apart from a few really well-known people.\u201d Thompson explains. \u201cWe set up [the account] because we believe that Black, queer people are not recognised and seen in Black History Month and we weren’t seeing them in LGBTQIA+ History Month either. We wanted to fill that gap.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Projects like <\/span>Black and Gay, Back in the Day<\/span><\/a>, <\/b>mark a tide change: one where the role Black, queer people have played in history is finally being acknowledged. \u201cI think the younger generation who are coming up are curious about the past,\u201d Thompson explains. \u201cWhat runs alongside that is an older generation who are ready to tell our stories.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This intergenerational sharing of stories and experiences is how we can redress the absences, silences and gaps around the queer, Black community <\/span>\u2013<\/span> people who have always been here, shaping history, but who have been overlooked for just as long. \u2018\u2018We, as a community, are responsible for preserving our history,\u2019 Thompson concludes. \u201cTo interpret, analyse, and share it.\u201d\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Thompson\u2019s right. Telling these stories is essential because they broaden the scope of the Black British history we think we know. Pearl Alcock\u2019s life tells the story of Black queer nightlife, the work of Ivor Cummings goes behind the scenes of one of the most recognisable moments of Black British history and the legacy of Ted Brown\u2019s activism shines a new light on the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights in the UK.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Black British queer history is Black history, it\u2019s my history. I\u2019m owed it, and we should know it.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Black History Month, Abi McIntosh digs into the archives to shine a light on the queer Black elders we should all know and asks why their stories aren\u2019t common\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7210,"featured_media":332297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21108],"tags":[2753,5012,644,11377,11726],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBlack History Month | Black LGBTQ+ history you should know<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This Black History Month, Abi McIntosh digs into the archives to shine a light on the queer Black elders we should all know\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/community\/black-history-month-lgbt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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