Lake View East in Chicago in Cook County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)

Stonewall

— The Legacy Project —

Photographed by Andrew Ruppenstein, August 26, 2021

1. Stonewall Marker

Inscription.
Stonewall
The Riot that Started a Revolution
June 28, 1969

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, law enforcement officials kept track of suspected homosexuals and the places that catered to them. Police regularly raided bars, seizing alcohol, and shutting down establishments. It was not uncommon for the people arrested during these raids to be exposed in newspapers, fired from their jobs, jailed, or confined to mental institutions. On June 27, 1969, about 200 patrons packed New York City’s Stonewall Inn. In the early morning hours of June 28th the police attempted a large-scale raid on the Mafia-owned gay club. No one – not the police or the people they were targeting – knew what was about to happen. While the police waited for patrol wagons to cart away the arrested suspects and seized alcohol, the bar’s patrons began to resist. Men refused to show their IDs, and those in drag refused to accompany female officers to a bathroom to have their gender confirmed. The mood gradually turned from somber resignation to camp humor to angry shouts. When a lesbian arrested inside the bar was brutalized while being placed in a police

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car, rage exploded among the several hundred people who had gathered in an uncharacteristic mob on the street. As the crowd erupted, the arresting officers – who were outnumbered more than 50 to 1 – barricaded themselves inside the bar. Within hours over 1000 people arrived and five more days of rioting engulfed the streets surrounding the club. Though the events of that immortal night were neither the first protest actions nor the first clashes between the police and LGBT people in the U.S., the unique confluence of rage and circumstances at the Stonewall Inn are considered the flashpoint that launched the modern LGBT Civil Rights Movement. Each year the world’s LGBT communities unite to celebrate June as Pride Month, with hundreds of parades to commemorate the day when the most marginal elements of the LGBT community – homeless street youth and transgender persons – sparked an uprising that rejected decades of non-confrontation, fear, and oppression to declare their outrage in one unmistakable voice that resonates to this day.

Erected 2014 by The Legacy Project.

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these

Stonewall Marker - wide view image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Andrew Ruppenstein, August 26, 2021

2. Stonewall Marker - wide view

The marker is visible here mounted to a rainbow pylon that it shares with a marker for Harvey Milk.

topic lists: Civil Rights • Law Enforcement. In addition, it is included in the The Legacy Walk series list. A significant historical date for this entry is June 28, 1969.

Location. 41° 56.698′ N, 87° 38.97′ W. Marker is in Chicago, Illinois, in Cook County. It is in Lake View East. It is on North Halsted Street north of West Newport Avenue, on the right when traveling south. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 3444 North Halsted Street, Chicago IL 60657, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in the American Midwest.

Globally, it is in North America,

on the Great Lakes,

in the Western Hemisphere,

in the Western World,

and in the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Viceroyalty of New France,

the territory of the Mississippian Culture,

and the Northwest Territory.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Harvey Milk (here, next to this marker); Frank Kameny (a few steps from this marker); Sgt. Leonard Matlovich (a few steps from this marker); Newport Avenue (within shouting distance of this marker); Billy Strayhorn

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(about 300 feet away); Vito Russo (about 300 feet away); The Legacy of Matthew Shepard (about 300 feet away); Pauli Murray (about 300 feet away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Chicago.

Other markers no longer nearby. Dr. Margaret "Mom" Chung (was about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line but has been permanently removed); "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (was about 300 feet away but has been permanently removed).

Also see . . . Stonewall riots (Wikipedia).

"The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising or the Stonewall rebellion) were a series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, New York, United States of America. Patrons of the Stonewall, other Village lesbian and gay bars, and neighborhood street people fought back when the police became violent. The riots are widely considered a watershed event that transformed the gay liberation movement and the twentieth-century fight for LGBT rights in the United States."

(Submitted on January 4, 2022.)

Additional keywords. lgbt lgbtq

Credits. This page was last revised on June 30, 2024. It was originally submitted on January 3, 2022, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California. This page has been viewed 264 times since then and 16 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on January 3, 2022, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California.