Despite the institutionalization of Black studies and increasing academic recognition of lesbian, gay, 'queer," and gender studies, the lives of Black lesbians, gay, bisexuals, and trans-identified people have been generally ignored. Currently, this history exists in fragments—in scattered documents, fiction, poetry and blues lyrics, hearsay, and innuendo.  Barbara Smith discusses the challenges of documenting the pre-1960s history of Black lesbian and gay communities and the need to create an accurate analytical framework that incorporates the racial, class, political, and cultural factors that shape the histories of African-American sexualities.

Barbara Smith is publisher eremita of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press and general editor of The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History (forthcoming, February 1997).  Her book The Truth That Never Hurts: Collected Writing 1968-1998 will be published by Rutgers University Press in September 1998.

Cosponsored by: Afro-American Studies and Research Program, Department of History, Department of Speech Communications, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, Unit One/Allen Hall, Women's Studies Program, Counseling Center, Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns, Office of Women's Programs, A Women's Fund, OUTpost Community Center