Big shoutout to Tracy Baim! She was the segue. My introduction to who she was and her Legacy. This website has so many stories from the Chicago community. Check it out when you get a chance! Rest in Love Vernita!

"Gray has been active on gay rights since the late 1960s. She has been part of a wide range of groups and works on anti-violence issues for the state's attorney's office of Cook County. She has been part of almost every major gay event in Chicago, and is an activist who crosses boundaries of race, gender, geography, class and more to work for LGBT rights and AIDS causes."

"In 2025, Chicago’s Affinity organization is a 30-year-old group with strong roots in the city. But in April 1996, BLACKlines was reporting on the organization, which was just one year into its existence. 

Affinity, a group by and for the Black LGBTQ+ community, answered the call for a queer organization based on Chicago’s South Side.

The early idea was a house or two-flat community center on the Southeast Side which would focus on serving Black LGBTQ+ people."

Read More Here: https://windycitytimes.com/2025/05/27/out-the-archives-affinity-aims-to-open-south-side-community-center/

It was the beginning of a decades-long career in nightlife that would put her at the center of the Dallas gay community and set her on a path as a leader and organizer.

Back then, all of the gay clubs were for white men, and those clubs would have occasional lesbian nights. Neal says one of the first white lesbian clubs was called JUGGS.

“They had a Friday night thing when all the black lesbians went,” she says. “We didn’t know there were so many black lesbians in Dallas. And we were like, ‘We should open a black club.’ ”

Read More Here: https://oakcliff.advocatemag.com/2019/05/meet-the-woman-who-brought-dallas-black-lgbtq-community-together/

"In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Lesbian Herstory Archives and the 25th anniversary of the Schomburg Center’s In The Life Archive, Digital Schomburg is thrilled to share our dual-publication, digital flipbook and limited edition printed zine, In Them We All Exist: Reflections and Resources on Black Lesbian Herstory in the Archives."

Visit here for more information: https://www.digitalschomburg.org/inthemweallexist

There are 2 sections you can submit/post to: 1960s-1990s & 2000s & Beyond (Towards the Bottom)

The goal is to gather our stories here! Then each month, there will be a free compiled PDF file (via Substack - link below) for download and to print! So if you happen to be an archivist, want to share your own story, or share a story you came across, feel free to post it here!

What We’re Archiving Together:

We’re especially calling in Black Lesbian Memories and materials from the late 1960s through the 1990s the decades that shaped and sharpened our collective voice. There will also be a section for the current generation of Black Lesbians to post.

Here’s what you can post:

• Photos of you or your elders from that era

• Newspaper clippings or magazine covers

• Journal entries, poems, or flyers

• Oral histories, written stories, audio clips, or mixtapes

• Web links to interviews, blog posts, or digital artifacts

• Zines, manifestos, event posters, old letters

• Fashion snapshots, house party pics, performance archives

  
  

And whatever else happens to come to mind!

More information here: https://open.substack.com/pub/blacklesbianarchives/p/introducing-our-community-archive?r=43bzqw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

Playing with hearts of girls she know they’ll never call her mine

Her lips speak of honestly and how she understands

But she doesn’t want me

She wants a man

Her eyes full of love

Her voice full of lust

Her hands hold mine

She lets me touch

one night of games for her

while I’m making future plans

Bc

She doesn’t want me

She wants a man

She lets me talk about me genuine and true

She lets me want her and pine and long

While she twists the truth

She lets me fly to her

Tell our families

And while boarding the plane to her and I happily land

She doesn’t want me

She wants a man

But all in all the lessons learned while

She’s on the search my bridge has burned

While the torch has been blown from my loving lamp

Im better having self love

In the end

Volume 3, Number 5. From the GLBT Historical Society, Periodicals Collection.

Articles: Staff, Outlets, "Passages" by Mayrann Turner in 1984 (continued from Aug./Sept. issue), "Open Letter to the Black Lesbian Community" by Helen L. Keller in 1984, "Spoken from the Heart" by Jamila A., Linda Strega and Bev Jo, and Vivienne Louise, "Today" by Avotcja, Classifieds, Calendar.

Black Lesbian Newsletter, October 1982 (later called Onyx). Volume 1, Number 4. From the GLBT Historical Society, Periodicals Collection.

Articles: Submissions, Outlets, "From Us to You" by the Black Lesbian Newsletter, "We Sound Like This", "Pass the Word" and "Songs of the Hummingbird" and "Changes" and "Wonder......ment" poems by Nedra Williams in 1980, Help Name the Newsletter - Contest, Donations, Announcements, Classified Ads, Subscriptions.

Onyx: Black Lesbian Newsletter, October / November 1983. Volume II, Number 5. From the GLBT Historical Society, Periodicals Collection.

Articles: Staff, Outlets, Help!, Donations, "L.O.C Conference", "Writing as a Lesbian" by Cheryl Clarke, "They Sing Life into Their Music", "The Color Purple" reviewed by Sarita Johnson in 1983, Calendar, Classified, Subscribe!

What are your thoughts?

Scissors is a bi-annual lesbian zine made by and for Black Lesbians and lesbians of color. Modeled off of Philly-based Black lesbian newspapers like "the Griot Press", Scissors publishes mutual aids, classifieds (housing, missed connections, employment), astrology, local news, interviews and poetry/essays/visual media around that edition's theme.

Previous themes have included:

• Living Dyke Archive (2025): How does the triumphs and struggles of Black Lesbians and lesbians of color in Philadelphia compare to those in the 90's? Archival research supported by the William Way LGBT+ Center and the Lesbian Herstory Archives.

• Knitting Generations Together: Fiber Arts and Continuing Culture (2024): What are the inheritances our elders and ancestors have left for us? Gifts, curses or a mix of both? Stories weaved together through braiding hair, sweet grass and yarn.

• Celebrating Four Years of Cronavrus, Genoc*de, and Cognitive Dissonance (2024): How has Covid-19 affected the lives of Black lesbians and lesbians of color within Philadelphia?

• The Homoerotic Best Friend That Every Lesbian Has But Ends Up Changing the Trajectory of Your Life (2024): The first inaugural issue of Scissors introducing the team and project to the community via love stories. "It's an exploration into what it means to confront yourself through homo-erotism, the loss of innocence, and (possibly) your first heartbreak. Starting with this theme was a way for us to explore our own experiences and also tie them to a larger, communal, experience."

Scissors is still an ongoing project and can be found on Substack, Instagram and Patreon.

They are accepting submissions for their 5th edition: Gaydar. An issue that explores the visibility and invisibility of lesbianism during the current climate of censorship and fascism. More information can be found here. Deadline: Sunday, October 26th at 11:59 pm EST

Among her primary concerns were “class availability,” “divestment from South Africa,” “issues of race, class, student empowerment,” and “equalizing research & teaching.” None of these were tremendously radical, and according to the Texan, her points aligned quite well with the general concerns of the student body.

What set her apart were her qualifications, her methods, and of course, her identities. While many students had experience in student government and majors in government, law, or economics, Luckett had a different set of skills. She is the only African and African-American Studies major represented, and her activities included the Rainbow Coalition and Ebony Connection.

She was also listed as a community organizer for Jesse Jackson and the Democratic Party. Her platform focused on gathering student support and pressuring the administration. She wanted to work outside the confines of the established avenues for student input.

When she is jointly endorsed by the Daily Texan (along with David Ritchie), the writer has to stipulate that Luckett did not seek their endorsement as “she wanted a populist campaign, not influenced by existing institutions.” The article says “conventions don’t bind Luckett” and “Luckett has the fire to take the SA a step beyond the institution it is and make it into a true student coalition.”