“He’s an insightful researcher,” said Harlem architect John T. Reddick the other night about Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. An officer of uptown’s Black SGL/LGBTQ+ advocacy group, Harlem Pride, Reddick was helping to host a cocktail party billed as a “Sip-in,” meant to commemorate the Sit-in demonstrations of Black activists protesting discrimination across the country 60 years and more ago.
A typical example was reported September 8, 1934, by the AmNews. Five men and a woman were arrested for protesting the Empire Cafeteria, at 306 Lenox Avenue, on the corner of 125th Street, dead center in the heart of Harlem, for their “refusal of to serve Negroes.” “Time was,” said Claudette Law, “ even with Harlem mostly African American, some business owners just couldn’t accept it.”
Saying of Gates, famed today for helping celebrities to explore their sometimes surprising family histories, Reddick continued, “I agree with his 1993 essay. He said that Harlem of the past was ‘surely as gay as it was Black.’ The only way that he might have erred was in suggesting that this hadn’t always been the case, or that it’s not still so now.”
Michael Henry Adams photos
Harlem Pride’s Sip-in tribute to Civil Rights activism at L’Artista Restaurant. 
Everett Scott and Aubrey Jackson Jr. 
Richard E Pelzer II, Founder of HarlemCLX meets a friend. 
With John Reddick and the generous owner of L’Artista Restaurant, Edwin Burton. 
Wendy Thorpe, Everett Scott, John Reddick, Daniel Schnyder, and C Llewelyn.
“Join us as we spill some his-tea-ry on how the ‘sit-ins’ of the Civil Rights Movement inspired and empowered…[Gay]…and other liberation movements of the 60s and 70s!” the invitation read, (indulging Reddick’s penchant for improbable puns). Unlike the dark days when some establishments barred Blacks and discouraged residents that Harlem Pride likes to classify as “Same Gender Loving” or “SGL” (a term popularized by activist Cleo Manago in an effort to express inclusivity of the identities of all of Harlem’s LGBTQ+ community), L’Artista restaurant owner Edwin Burton, who served 60 cent cheeseburgers and fries as a reminder of the olden days, couldn’t have been more welcoming. On one of April’s coldest nights, about 25 guests cozily crowded into and filled this warm and intimate spot on Hamilton Place. We all ate, drank, and reminisced as the soundtrack of our young lives, “Love Sensation,” Cheryl Lynn’s anthem, “Got to Be There,” and other rhythmic oldies played away. We recalled and thanked God for our brilliant predecessors, like great actress Edna Thomas or artists and writers, including poet Claude McKay and sculptor Richmond Barthé. We raised a toast or two to philosopher Alain Leroy Locke, to James Baldwin and his life-changing novel “Giovanni’s Room.” We remembered and thanked out loud Lorraine Hansberry, unmatched as a playwright and activist, with Audre Lorde and Dr. Maya Angelou. Bayard Rustin, the openly gay man who organized the March on Washington, was also praised.
It was the legacy of these exemplary individuals and others — Shirley Denise Chisholm, Adriane Ferguson, Michael E. Hodge, and John Reddick — who inspired Harlem Pride co-founders Lawrence Rodriguez and Carmen Neely to organize an unambiguously Black celebration of Pride month on June 26, 2010. That inaugural event included about 20 vendors catering to 2,500 celebrants. As a dedicated ally, New York State Senator Bill Perkins was among them.
Since then, Harlem Pride has expanded to include community forums, workshops, networking events, and other community outreach activities. If you want to join this year’s festivities, the place to be is 12th Avenue near the Hudson, under the Viaduct. To learn more about this year’s Pride celebrations and lots more, you can visit Harlem Pride at harlempride.org, call (646) 858-3125, or write:
Harlem Pride
42 Macombs Place
New York. NY, 10039
Harlem Pride — celebrating pride and diversity in our SGL & LGBT communities and organizations in Harlem!