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Great Wall Institute: The Process of the Great Wall of Los Angeles

The Black Cat

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2. 1967 Police Raid Silverlake's Black Cat "As the Rhythm Queens, a trio of black women, sang a rock version of "Auld Lang Syne," balloons fell from the ceiling and gay men exchanged the traditional midnight kiss. That was when uniformed police, who had been alerted by the undercover officers, rushed in and began to swing billy clubs, tear down leftover Christmas ornaments, break furnishings, and beat men brutally. Sixteen customers and employees were arrested and forced to lie face down on the sidewalk until squad cars came to take them away."- GAY L.A.
3. 1966 Black Cat Raid Established in 1966, the Personal Rights in Defense and Education (PRIDE) group set out to combat police harassment of homosexuals and provide a social outlet for gay men in Los Angeles. Founded by Steve Ginsburg, co-chair of the 1973 Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco, the gay rights organization existed for only two years but made a profound and lasting impact. On Feb. 11, 1967, PRIDE organized a peaceful demonstration protesting the Los Angeles Police Department’s raid of the Black Cat Tavern, a gay bar in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Undercover vice squad officers beat and arrested gay male patrons on the evening of Dec. 31, 1966, for openly engaging in the traditional New Year’s Eve kiss. PRIDE’s action in response to the Black Cat Tavern incident was one of the earliest organized gay rights demonstrations in the United States. Two years later, the Stonewall Riots, a series of spontaneous demonstrations protesting police raids at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, would usher in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and transgender/transsexual (LGBTQ) rights movement. Prior to the police raid on the Black Cat Tavern, PRIDE published a single-page monthly newsletter that would become The Los Angeles Advocate. The original newsletter provided legal advice and printed an updated list of gay-friendly bars in the Los Angeles area. The Los Angeles Advocate would later evolve into the oldest and largest LGBTQ publication in the United States. Now known simply as The Advocate, the publication still runs monthly and covers the LGBTQ community. PRIDE also created a small instructional booklet called The Pocket Lawyer for people to carry in the event that they were arrested for homosexual conduct. The booklet made clear an individual’s right to refuse to make a statement or to give personal information, such as employment.
5. 1967 Police Raid Silverlake's Black Cat "As the Rhythm Queens, a trio of black women, sang a rock version of "Auld Lang Syne," balloons fell from the ceiling and gay men exchanged the traditional midnight kiss. That was when uniformed police, who had been alerted by the undercover officers, rushed in and began to swing billy clubs, tear down leftover Christmas ornaments, break furnishings, and beat men brutally. Sixteen customers and employees were arrested and forced to lie face down on the sidewalk until squad cars came to take them away."- GAY L.A.

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Before Stonewall, there was the Black Cat; LGBTQ leaders to mark 50th anniversary of protests at Silver Lake tavern (LA TIMES)

By Hailey Branson-Potts
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-silver-lake-black-cat-lgbtq-20170208-story.html

The clock had just struck midnight at the Black Cat tavern on Sunset Boulevard on New Year’s Day 1967. As singers performed “Auld Lang Syne” in the Silver Lake bar, gay men kissed and embraced, celebrating the new year.
Unbeknownst to them, plainclothes Los Angeles police officers had positioned themselves in the crowd that night. They beat patrons and arrested 14 people, who were charged with lewd conduct for same-sex kissing. On Feb. 11, 1967, protesters took a bold step for that era and grabbed their picket signs, publicly protesting the police raid outside the bar — a gay-rights demonstration that pre-dated the monumental Stonewall riots in New York City by two years.
On Saturday night, members of the LGBTQ community, along with Los Angeles city leaders, will gather at the Black Cat to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the demonstration.
“Back in 1967, the community was so used to being oppressed by the police and persecuted that they didn’t know what to do,” said L.A. City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, the openly gay councilman who represents the district. “It was a violent evening. So, they decided to get organized.”