The Stonewall Inn: The Sparks of Liberation

Why is it significant?

Look across at the brick facade and proud rainbow flags of the Stonewall Inn, standing quietly opposite Christopher Park. On this peaceful street corner in the summer of nineteen sixty-nine, a spontaneous rebellion sparked the modern global movement for LGBTQ civil rights.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Look across at the brick facade and proud rainbow flags of the Stonewall Inn, standing quietly opposite Christopher Park. On this peaceful street corner in the summer of nineteen sixty-nine, a spontaneous rebellion sparked the modern global movement for LGBTQ civil rights.

In the late nineteen sixties, homosexual conduct was criminalized in forty-nine states, and the New York State Liquor Authority routinely shut down bars that served gay customers. Because of this, organized crime syndicates operated the Stonewall Inn as an unlicensed private bottle club, paying off local police precincts to avoid constant interference. Even so, police raids were frequent, humiliating, and terrifying. Officers routinely arrested patrons, subjected transgender customers to forced bodily inspections in the bathrooms, and published names in newspapers, costing people their jobs, families, and livelihoods.

But in the early morning hours of Saturday, June twenty-eighth, nineteen sixty-nine, when undercover detectives raided the bar, the crowd decided they had suffered enough. Instead of scattering into the night, patrons gathered on the sidewalk outside, singing protest songs and mocking the officers.

When police violently shoved a handcuffed lesbian into a patrol wagon, the crowd erupted. Led by trans women of color, drag queens, and homeless youth, including trailblazers like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, the crowd hurled coins, bottles, and cobbles, forcing the terrified officers to retreat inside and barricade themselves in the bar!

The protests and street battles raged across Christopher Street for six consecutive nights. One year later, on June twenty-eighth, nineteen seventy, thousands of activists marched from Greenwich Village up Sixth Avenue to Central Park in the Christopher Street Liberation Day March—the very first Pride parade in history. In two thousand sixteen, President Barack Obama designated the Stonewall National Monument, enshrining this modest village watering hole as holy ground in the ongoing fight for human equality.