Flashback Friday Remembers William Dorsey Swann, 19th Century Black Drag Queen

 

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Born into slavery in 1860 in Maryland, Swann was one of the first out gay drag queens, "The Queen of Drag", and the first to establish a gay resistance group.

After slavery ended, his parents were able to buy a small farm. His first job was as a restaurant waiter. Later, at 24, he was arrested for stealing library books and an item from his employer's home. But given his character, his former employer, the sentencing judge, and the Assistant US Attorney filed for a pardon to commute his six-month sentence, arguing that he was:

"free from vice, industrious, refined in his habits, and associations, gentle in his disposition, courteous in his bearing". And that "he was trying to improve his education and provide for his family, and that his former employers would happily offer lifetime employment as the college janitor."

 

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We start to see the line from this time to one hundred years later with the underground Ball culture in NYC. In the 1880s and 90s, Swanna created and reigned over secret underground drag balls in Washington DC, often advertised by hushed word of mouth at the YMCA, under the moniker House of Swann. Former slaves would gather to dance in their finest, always under the threat of police violence. They would perform elaborate dances, such as the "cakewalk," which was a satirical dance involving improvised movement and exaggerated refinement that poked fun at their former owners. Such improvisation to mock and take on the mannerisms of a ruling culture can be seen later in vogueing, in which poor POC performers mimicked with great theatrical flair the styles of dress and culture of 80s NY whites.

Swann was arrested several times, and, one time, aggressively fought back against the arresting officer, saying, "You is no gentleman!" That event, on April 12, 1888, was Swann's thirtieth birthday. Those balls were some of the first instances of the gathering of gays, and this arrest was the first recorded instance of an arrest made of a man in women's clothing. According to Channing Gerard Joseph, this reaction by Swann "rather than to submit passively to his arrest marks one of the earliest-known instances of violent resistance in the name of gay rights. ( "William Dorsey Swann". African American National Biography, May 20, 2021.)

News article in the Evening Star newspaper about a raid on a dancing party in Washington DC involving men in female attire mentioning William Dorsey. Evening Star April 13 1888.

The above news article was a form of public shaming of attendees and gay men in general, a tactic we see through to today. But as Joseph pointed out, "acts of public shaming like this one are the only reason we now know who Swann was. The identities and stories of the men who escaped capture have been lost to history." Public record is historical public record, even if it was for nefarious reasons. Such articles, though, made it more difficult for Swann to, um, hold his balls. In 1896 he was arrested and held for ten months for operating a "baudy house." While his pardon appeal was denied by President Grover Cleveland's office, such an appeal was another first in American gay rights: that of a gay man pursuing legal and political action for the queer community's right to gather.

William Dorsey Swann, the Queen of Drag - Rediscovering Black History ‍♂️️‍ #WilliamDorseySwann

Thank you @DemuseSoa for bringing this phenomenal man to light & congratulations for doing it exquisitely #GlobalAllStars #RPDR pic.twitter.com/w7dZvFAskH

— SpiritedStrength (@SpiritedSSays) September 8, 2024

Swann died in December of 1925 in his hometown of Hancock, MD. He was cremated, and local officials burned his home to the ground. To which yer boy Hank here says that you have to really piss people off in the right way to have that reaction to your death! He got his revenge on DC  posthumously when Swann Street in the city's NW corner, originally named after white nineteenth-century politician Thomas Swann, was renamed after William Dorsey Swann by the Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission in 2022.

All hail the Queen and her legacy!