NEIU Student-Faculty Research Community Explores Hidden Voices in LGBTQ History

CHICAGO - June 19, 2013 - PRLog -- This spring a group of NEIU faculty and students were awarded a $5000 grant to explore the contributions of people of color to the LGBTQ movement. Led by Professors Vicki Byard (English), Francesca Morgan (History), and Timothy Barnett (English)--faculty who helped found the recent LGBTQ Studies program at NEIU--the group includes a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate students eager to document how the LGBTQ movement has too often drowned out important LGBTQ voices that were not White and middle-class.

This research community has begun exploring Chicago archives to discover the input of often overlooked heroes such as Ortez Alderson and E. Kitch Childs, Chicagoans who fought for civil rights for African Americans, for LGBTQ people, and for people living with AIDS. Students are also investigating the drag culture on Chicago’s South Side that flourished in the 20th century, the ways newsletters such as “Lavender Woman” tried to foreground diverse struggles within the LGBTQ movement, and the way the HIV/AIDS crisis served as an important historical marker for communities of color.

Noted University of Illinois-Chicago historian John D’Emilio has been advising the group, which also traveled to Washington DC to explore materials at the Library of Congress. On that trip, the group was able to meet with members of the Latino GLBT History Project and take part in some of the activities of the annual Black Pride festival. The group will share its results on the website OutHistory.org (a website dedicated to a grass roots understanding of LGBTQ history) and in academic and popular forums.