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1966 Julius sip-in... serving homosexuals...
1966 Julius sip-in... serving homosexuals...
Item # 703875
May 05, 1966
THE VILLAGE VOICE (weekly), Greenwich Village, New York, May 5, 1966
* Julius sip-in - Mattachine Society fight
* Serving homosexuals at bars - restaurants
* Dick Leitsch and Craig Rodwell w/ photo
The top of page 15 has a heading: "Three Homosexuals In Search of a Drink" with lead-in: "Civil Liberties" and photo of the three men involved. (see images) Great to have in this Greenwich Village publication.
I suspect this to be an extremely rare item because their was really no reason to save it at the time.
wikipedia notes: Dick Leitsch and Craig Rodwell, the Mattachine Society's president and vice president respectively, and another society activist, John Timmons, planned to draw attention to the practice of businesses denying service to homosexuals. They chose to identify themselves as gay before ordering a drink in order to bring court scrutiny to the regulation. The three read from Mattachine stationery stating, "We are homosexuals. We are orderly, we intend to remain orderly, and we are asking for service.The three first targeted the Ukrainians-American Village Restaurant at St. Mark's Place and Third Avenue in the East Village, Manhattan which had a sign, "If you are gay, please go away." The three showed up after a New York Times reporter had asked a manager about the protest and the manager had closed the restaurant for the day. Secondly, they targeted a bar called Dom's, which was also closed. They then targeted a Howard Johnson's and a bar called Waikiki. They were served in spite of their note, with a bartender saying later, "How do I know they're homosexual? They ain't doing nothing homosexual." The Julius sip-in was a protest at the Julius Bar in New York City on April 21, 1966, to fight state laws which prevented businesses from serving homosexuals. The protest was organized by the Mattachine Society who were inspired by the sit-in movement. A resulting lawsuit at the New York State Supreme Court found that being gay was not indecent behavior and thus service could not be denied to an individual simply for being homosexual.
It is worth noting that "The Village Voice" was an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955, the Voice began as a platform for the creative community of New York City.
Complete with 40 pages, tabloid-size, one crease across the center, nice condition.
Provenance note: This issue comes from The Village Voice's own archives, part of their in-house collection used to create their digital archive. Rare as such.
Alert: Many issues of The Village Voice contain articles and/or photos which some consider offensive, and are certainly inappropriate for children. Please purchase with discretion.
Category: The 20th Century
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