MILWAUKEE — The Wisconsin Historical Society says it’s placing a landmark in the Third Ward to commemorate the first known event in the state where the LGBTQ community stood up against homophobic violence in the state.
Hundreds of these bronze plaques highlight significant people and places in state history.
Michail Takach told the state’s historical society they were missing a landmark for what he considers to be Wisconsin’s most important piece of LGBTQ history.
"So much of LGBTQ history is hidden history simply because no one's pursued it,” he said.
Takach is part of the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project. It’s a group that’s on a mission to make sure an event called the ‘Black Nite Uprising’ won’t be forgotten.
"On the night of August 5, 1961, four servicemen were drinking at a Brady Street bar, and they lost a drinking game and essentially were put on a kind of a truth or dare bet to go to the Black Nite,” Takach said. “This was intended fully to humiliate them. This was a completely homophobic dare.”
Takach says the four men started fighting the bouncer at the city’s most popular gay bar when a trans woman stepped in to back him up.
"She knocked one of the sailors unconscious, sent him to the hospital but his friend said we'll be back and we're going to clean this place up which was a very heavy threat and a promise."
The sailors came back later that night with a much bigger group only to find far more patrons inside the bar ready to fight against homophobic violence.
“It helped of course that our heroine of the story, Josie, had rallied everyone and basically said, ‘Aren’t you tired of this? Aren’t you tired of this life that we have? Like, it’s time to stop running,’” Takach said.
"These were people who had their entire lives dealt with harassment and violence and discrimination and abuse and they just weren't going to take it coming to their doorstep at one of the few safe places they had at the time," Takach added.
The Black Nite was eventually torn down, but due to Michael and the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project’s advocacy and historical landmark application, a state plaque will be placed at the site in October to stand the test of time.
"There is evidence that the Black Nite brawl may have been, if not the first queer resistance event in national history, then certainly one of the first,” he said.
A landmark for a piece of Wisconsin history that will soon instill pride in Milwaukee’s LGBTQ community and its allies.
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