A Black Queer History of the United States

“A historical appreciation of queer Black culture and how it shaped American history.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Illuminating … [A]n excellent window into a long-repressed past.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A Black Queer History of the United States isn’t just a book—it’s a balm, a battle cry, and a beautifully subversive remix of the American story. With wit, rigor, and archival elegance, Snorton and Bost have queered the timeline, centering the lives, loves, and legacies of Black LGBTQ+ folks from the colonial past to the chaotic now. They don’t just fill the gaps; they flood them—with kinship, resistance, and receipts.”
—Cheryl Dunye, writer-director, The Watermelon Woman

“Moving through small towns and social movements, A Black Queer History of the United States shows how Black queer and trans life has always been a site of world-building. This book doesn’t ask to be centered, instead it just starts speaking, and everything else rearranges. I needed it. We all do.”
—Tourmaline, author of Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson

“A Black Queer History of the United States explores and collects the untold and told stories of how the most vulnerable people in this nation worked to shape its culture. C. Riley Snorton and Darius Bost can now add their names and this volume to the list of trailblazers, movements, publications, and performances they’ve so skillfully researched for this groundbreaking endeavor. From the colonial-era agitators to contemporary poets, Bost and Snorton know who we are and tell our story, reminding us not only that we’ve always been here but also that we are what’s best about and for America.”
—Jericho Brown, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry (2002) for The Tradition

C. Riley Snorton is professor of English Language and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and the author of Nobody Is Supposed to Know- Black Sexuality on the Down Low and Black on Both Sides- A Racial History of Trans Identity, which won numerous awards including the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction, the Sylvia Rivera Award in Transgender Studies from the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, and an honorable mention from the American Library Association Stonewall Book Award Committee.

Darius Bost is Associate Professor of Black Studies and Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Bost is the author of the award-winning book, Evidence of Being- The Black Gay Cultural Renaissance and The Politics of Violence.

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