Friday marks 50 years since LGBTQ activists rioted at the Stonewall Inn in New York. The famous protests accelerated themovement to secure rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans.
In honor of the 50th anniversary, The Stonewall National Museum & Archives in Wilton Manors has a special photography exhibit on display through Aug. 11.
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"This particular photo is from the New York Daily News archive," said Emery Grant, the museum's director of programming and education. "And it's one of the few photos of the actual uprising itself."
The black-and-white picture Grant shows off is of a group of people involved in a confrontation. It's just one of a little more than 20 photos in the special exhibit.
"These photos will take you through the mid 1960s to the early 1970s in the years just after the riot," Grant said.
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The uprising grew into six nights of protests. LGBTQ people's refusal to back down shifted the conversation about rights — in a way that earlier riots in other large cities had not been able to accomplish, Grant said.
"These radical activists paved the way for a new version of LGBT civil rights," Grant said. "So we have Pride in June — in the heat of South Florida — because we want to honor and celebrate the Stonewall Uprising that took place in June 1969."
WLRN staff took a tour of the Stonewall National Museum & Archives in Wilton Manors. You can watch it on the WLRN Facebook page, here.
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