History comes alive at Stonewall National Museum with reenactment of 1969 uprising
MIAMI - History will come alive on Saturday as The Stonewall National Museum, Archive and Library will have a reenactment of the uprising at the Stonewall Inn at 4:30 p.m.
It is located at 1300 East Sunrise Blvd in Fort Lauderdale. The public is invited to participate or watch.
The idea is to help people understand the significance of what happened and learn more about the movement that followed.
It was the early morning hours of June 28th, 1969 when New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village.
"We were dancing, line dances, cha cha, slow dance was called The Grind," said Tree Sequoia, as he's known. He was a bartender there, he was off that night but was there hanging out on the dance floor when he heard a commotion in another room.
"We knew it was another raid, but we did not know that was going to be the raid of all raids," he said.
Police were raiding the bar looking into illegal liquor sales. At the time, homosexuality was a criminal offense.
"When the cops came, like, they threw drugs on the floor and said, 'step on that, that's yours. step on that, that's yours,' And people said, no. Next thing you know, we saw a bottle go flying this way and everything started going crazy," he said.
Unlike other raids, this time people fought back. That was the beginning of a 5-day uprising that would forever change the LGBTQ community.
"We had the cops locked there with a few customers that they were arresting. We were attacking it. We were throwing bottles at the window trying to set the bar on fire with the police in it," he said.
Robert Kesten is the Executive Director of the Stonewall National Museum, Archive and Library.
During Pride Month, they set up a replica of the Stonewall Inn to immerse people in history.
"From a riot became a multi-day uprising that led to the beginning of the gay liberation movement as we know it today," Kesten said.
It led to visibility.
"Our entire world started to change. More people came out more people ran for office, more people left their jobs to get jobs in the LGBTQ world," Kesten said.
Tree said it changed history.
"I want the world to know that we fought for what we want, and we don't want anybody taking it away," Tree said.
