Historian Channing Gerard Joseph on how Black queer culture shaped US history

PERSPECTIVE © FRANCE 24

In April, Washington's city council unanimously approved the first reading of a bill that would inaugurate Swann Street near the Dupont Circle neighbourhood of the US capital. The bill honours William Dorsey Swann. Born in 1860, he was the first known person to dub himself a drag queen. His legacy is just one part of the larger influence the African American queer community had on Black emancipation in the US. Historian and journalist Channing Gerard Joseph joined us for Perspective to tell us more.