Before Stonewall, There Was The Black Nite Brawl

June 6, 2025
HANK ORSO

As we move into this Pride month, we all know that Stonewall is the bellwether event that has been raised up as the "start" of LGBTQ+ activism, anger, and revolt. But if you've done any research at all into the modern gay movement, you'll know that Stonewall came after a few significant events years earlier. The marches in DC led by the Mattachine Society (founded 1950) and the Daughters of Belitis, the Cooper Do-Nuts Riot of May 1959 (Los Angeles), the Black Cat Protests of February 1967 (LA), and the Compton's Cafeteria riot in San Francisco in 1966, as well as individual revolts in small ways against oppressors, have displayed gays and their might long before those nights in NY in 1969. One such overlooked event was the Black Nite Brawl in Milwaukee in 1961.

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As reported by the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project, relaying the work of historian Michail Takach, on August 5th, 1961, four Navy servicemen went to the Black Nite gay bar "on a dare." They knew it was a gay bar and went in search of causing trouble. What they got was Black trans performer Josie Carter with two beer bottles in her hand, ready to defend her space. The bar, owned by Harry Kaminski and Wally Whetham (a twice-married man with children), became a haven for the community, and a bit of a cash cow for the owners who weren't bothered by the proclivities and lifestyles of their clients. They welcomed and embraced the community, and the community felt fierce protection for their safe spaces along that Chandler-esque strip of dark warehouses along Milwaukee's riverfront.

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Seeing her boyfriend, the bouncer, struggling with the four men, Carter thought, "Oh no, you're not going to hurt MY husband." When the servicemen were forcibly expelled from the bar, they vowed to return to "clean up the Black Nite." Carter rallied the community and when the attackers returned later that night, over 70 community members were ready to defend their bar. As Carter later said, "Wally said, 'OK, you guys have to get out of here, because God knows what is about to happen.' But we did not run from a fight. We did not run from nothing. And, wouldn't you know it, those big ass mothers came back and just tore apart that bar, looking for little old me and my husband, because their buddy got beat up."

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The ensuing brawl was short but intense. The four men started breaking up the bar, but the patrons fought back. Three patrons were hospitalized, some seriously, but the four servicemen were eventually expelled and dragged off by the responding police, whose attitude was that they had no right coming into the bar. "One of the guys came at me and said, 'OK you sick faggot, come on.' I popped him right there, and the blood sprayed and he fell to the ground. I'll never forget that as long as I live. He started it, but I stopped it. I may be a 'faggot,' but I'm the one who stopped it."

In a rare example of solidarity, the police were there to protect the gay patrons, and not look the other way. According to Carter, "The police were good to me back then; they took care of me and taught me how to stay out of trouble. I never had no problem with the police, as long as I didn't make problems."

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Decades later, in November of 2022, the Milwaukee County Landmarks Committee granted the location of the Black Nite, long since demolished for highway expansion, historical landmark status. This was bolstered in August 2024 when the location became the first LGBTQ-related location in Wisconsin to receive State Historical Landmark status. Residents of Milwaukee who remember the defining incident or simply grew up gay at the time saw it as a rare positive and invigorating moment, when laws were still on the books banning many aspects of their lives.