William Dorsey Swann was known to his friends as “the Queen.” A former slave, Swann reigned over a secret world of drag balls in Washington, D.C., in the 1880s and was the leader of possibly the world’s earliest-known LGBTQ liberation group, according to an article in The Nation. William Dorsey Swann. A large man named William Dorsey Swann—the queen of the ball—was “arrayed in a gorgeous dress of cream-colored satin.”[5] But unlike the others, he ran frantically toward the officers in a vain attempt to keep them from entering. Three months into his sentence, Swann filed a petition of pardon pleading that he was a respectable hard worker with a long record of continuous employment, that the sentence was severe to the crime, and that if released he would “live a proper and law abiding life.” Thirty of his friends and allies (also possibly members of the drag or queer community) signed the petition in a show of support. The petition gives great detail of the incident and circumstances of the petty larceny, and is very generous in describing Swann’s character: “…he was free from vice, industrious, refined in his habits, and associations, gentle in his disposition, courteous in his bearing…”. This request was denied, but Swann was the first American on record who pursued legal and political action to defend the LGBTQ community's right to gather. The article makes reference to a pardon from President Grover Cleveland, and that is where I decided to pull on the string to see what could be found in the Pardon Case Files (NAID 572806), RG 204. William Dorsey Swann was a gay liberation activist. [1] In it he introduces us to William Dorsey Swann, the first reported drag queen and queer activist in the United States. Thank you Katherine Wadders for sharing this with me. William Dorsey Swann was born into bondage, and after the Civil War became Washington D.C.’s greatest drag queen. Beginning in the 1880s, Swann became the 1st American activist to lead an LGBTQ resistance group that had violent encounters with the police. In an article published in The Nation Friday, writer and historian Channing Gerard Joseph tells the little-known story of Swann, a cross-dressing black man born into slavery who was affectionately known as “the Queen.” William Dorsey Swann (c. 1858) was an American gay liberation activist. This person was William Dorsey Swann. [1][2] After his sentencing, he requested a pardon from President Grover Cleveland. The petitioners also note that he was trying to improve his education and provide for his family, and that the Spencers would happily offer lifetime employment as the college janitor. Original post by James Stanhope. In the 1880s, he became the first known person to dub himself a “queen of drag” or a drag queen. The article makes reference to a pardon from President Grover Cleveland, and that is where I decided to pull on the string to see what could be found in the Pardon Case Files ( NAID 572806 ), RG 204. The existence of these papers is the first instance where an “American [took] specific legal and political steps to defend the queer community’s right to gather without the threat of criminalization, suppression, or police violence.”. What a lovely story, these story inspired me more, and brought hope into my Rainbow world. The Pardon Case Files hold almost 1,000 cubic feet of textual records dealing with people who petitioned for Executive Clemency (or a pardon) from the President of the United States. Unlike the one filed in 1882, this petition of pardon was not met favorably by the US Attorney. Born into slavery in 1860, William Dorsey Swann, known affectionately as “the Queen,” was possibly the very first drag queen, and a pioneer when it came to LGBTQ rights and activism. [6], Former slave and activist known as the first person to identify as a drag queen, "The First Drag Queen Was a Former Slave", "Researcher says first self-described drag queen was a formerly enslaved man who 'reigned over a secret world of drag balls' in the 1800s", "2019 Creative Nonfiction Grantee: Channing Gerard Joseph", "The Black Drag Queens Who Fought Before Stonewall", "An Homage to Five Generations of Black Entertainers in Orlando", "William Dorsey Swann the 1st drag queen, LGBTQ rights pioneer", Photographs of postcards from the James Gardniner collection, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Dorsey_Swann&oldid=1005427292, LGBT rights activists from the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 7 February 2021, at 16:27. In 1882, Swann pled guilty and was sentenced in September to six months in jail for stealing books from the Washington Library Company, and one month for theft of objects from the home of Henry and Sara Spencer, heads of the Spencerian Business College where Swann was employed. Formerly an enslaved person, Swann endured the hardships of forced labour and lived through the tumultuous Civil War.