Faced with discriminatory practices or outright rejection by the White gay community’s bars and clubs, African Americans socialized in homes, adding their own flavor to a long tradition in the larger African American community. In the 1960s, the Metropolitan Capitalites, a Black LGBTQ social club, organized house parties for African American gay and lesbian Washingtonians. The ClubHouse’s opening night, Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend, was the end of one journey for DC’s Black LGBTQ community and the beginning of another. Eddy, Aundrea Scott, Scott’s sister Paulette, Morrell Chasten, and Rainey Cheeks opened the club at 1296 Upshur Street NW across from Theodore Roosevelt High School in Petworth in 1975. It was “a place where anyone 16 and over could go and have the house party they couldn’t have in their house,” recalled John Eddy, president and one of the founders of the ClubHouse. Tucked away in a residential neighborhood in Northwest DC, over the next 15 years the ClubHouse became a nationally known after-hours dance club and a seedbed of important developments in the LGBTQ communities. If you can supply any names, please send an email with the subject “ClubHouse” to All photos appear, courtesy, Rainbow History ProjectĪ small group of dedicated Black LGBTQ Washingtonians opened the ClubHouse to serve their community in 1975. People shown in most ClubHouse photos are not identified.
#Dc gay bars dancing series#
Check out the Rainbow History Project’s short video series about the ClubHouse.Īt the door to the ClubHouse at 1296 Upshur St NW. Olinger looks back at the ClubHouse, a remarkable nightclub founded by Black members of DC’s LGBTQ community that filled multiple social needs from 1975 to 1990.
The club was boycotted by black lesbians protesting perceived racism. The crowd is very mixed, but mostly gay women…”Ĭapitol Hill women's bar, opened a restaurant in August 1990. Just Us : “A discotheque with an international atmosphere, the Club Madame has a varied program of seasonally oriented festivals, such as Mardi Gras, Oktoberfest, and so on, which require payment of an admission fee. The club ultimately closed in 2004 following problems with clubgoers. Owners: Ibijinka Hicks, Addie Johnson, Tedara Lindsay, Vicki Harris. Offered use of its space to community groups such as SMYAL, Mautner Project, and others.
Here are just a few of the lost lesbian bars they identify:Īfrican-American-owned dance club, initially primarily a lesbian club. The Rainbow History Project has done a superb job of cataloguing LGBT "places and spaces" from the 1920s to the present. While Washington's bars suffered from fewer police raids than New York's, there was still harrassment:Ī member of Mattachine at JoAnna’s one summer evening in 1969 saw “a steady procession of uniformed police come in and out of the bar.” Querying a policeman about the procession, she was told “there was no trouble at all, but that the precinct was just keeping an eye on things.” It is also noted that Jo-Anna's was one of the first of Washington's clubs to willingly identify with "gayness" and distribute the Mattachine Society newsletter. They put in a small dance floor, which immediately started to attract business including, (I think) some men. It was responsible for the initiation of dancing in DC gay bars on a regular basis. Dr Franklin Kameny remembers, "JoAnna's arrived somewhat later, on the NE corner of 8th and E, directly across from Johnnie's. SE in 1968 represented a new social option for women, and a daring new dance floor. NW, the Spring Road Café, a purple building that was hard to miss, saw women’s gatherings on weekends. At 5828 Georgia, in upper Northwest, Zombies’ restaurant generally welcomed women. Until mid-decade there was no equivalent of the old Showboat club. Mark Meinke in "The Social Geography of Washington, D.C.'s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Community" (2002) says the following about "Women's social spaces" in Washington:įor most of the Sixties there were few public social options for women.
Location: 430 8th Street, Washington, D.C., USA