National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays

The National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays (formerly The National Coalition of Black Gays) was the United States' first national organization for African American and Third World gay rights.^[1]

In contrast to other Washington, D.C.-based gay rights organizations' opposition to the march, NCBG's support for the 1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights smoothed the way for the event in Washington.

Founding (1978)

The National Coalition of Black Gays (NCBG) was organized by ABilly S. Jones,^[2] Darlene Garner and Delores P. Berry in Columbia, Maryland in the spring of 1978 to provide a national advocacy forum for African American gay men and lesbians at a time when no other organization existed to express their views. The organizers were motivated in part by the belief that existing gay and lesbian organizations did not represent the views and experience of African Americans. Jones served as logistical director of the organizing committee for the march until the month before the event when he turned his attention to organizing the Third World Conference.

NCBG added Lesbian to its name in the 1980s to become the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays. The organization's headquarters moved to Detroit, Michigan briefly in the mid-1980s.

It was one of the first organizations to initiate HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in the black community, including pamphlets that used coded terms familiar in the black community with men who would never identify with the gay community.^[3]

Dissolution (1986)

NCBG added Lesbian to its name in 1984 to become the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays, but by 1986, several key leaders had left, and eventually the group (without any official announcement) faded out of existence.^[4]

See also

• African-American culture and sexual orientation

References

External links

• "National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays" at the website of the course "The LGBTQ Civil Rights Movement 1960 - 1990: Exploring History and Current Consequences" at University of Wisconsin-Madison; accessed 18 August 2010.