“I have been a lesbian all my life, for eighty-two years, and I am proud of myself and my people. I would like all my people to be free in this world, my gay people and my black people.”
– Mabel Hampton, NYC Gay Pride Rally, 1984.
Mabel Hampton (1902-1989) was an African-American lesbian activist, Harlem Renaissance dancer, and important figure of lesbian and gay history. Mabel held court at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, including opening mail and discovering lesbian stories. She was a valued member of the archives since they were founded, up until her death.
Mabel made Harlem her home when she was just seventeen years old. “That same year, women got the vote, Prohibition accidentally ushered in the age of speakeasies and bathtub gin, and the subway fare to Coney Island was lowered to just five cents, turning it into the infamous ‘Nickel Empire’,” according to Hugh Ryan. “The Great Migration had spread a diaspora of black Southerners across the northern United States, and Harlem was becoming the centre of black thought, literature, and arts. The Twenties were just beginning to roar, and Mabel saw all of it.”
The Harlem Renaissance, which occurred between the 1910s-1930s, was considered the golden age of African American culture. The Harlem Renaissance erupted out of “the development of the Harlem neighbourhood in New York City as a Black cultural mecca in the early 20th Century and the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted,” according to History.
Mabel sang and danced for the Harlem Renaissance, contributing to its important stamp on African American culture and history. She became a part of an all-black female singing and dancing ensemble at Coney Island, before focusing her energy on Harlem’s bustling arts scene.
It was around this time that Mabel was introduced to the word “lesbian.” Although she had “fooled around” with women before, she had an epiphany after finding there was a word for it – a word used by women like her. She told Joan Nestle, “I said to myself, well, if that’s what it is, I’m already in it!”
Once in Harlem, Mabel performed at the Garden of Eden and the Lafayette Theater. She spent much of her time alongside influential lesbian and bisexual black women – movers and shakers of the Harlem Renaissance – including Gladys Bentley. “I had so many different girlfriends it wasn’t funny,” Mabel recalled.
In 1924, Mabel and a friend were falsely accused and arrested for prostitution, after being set up by police. “At the time, being an unescorted woman at a bar was often considered enough evidence for a conviction on prostitution charges,” wrote Hugh Ryan. “The magistrate who heard Mabel’s case, Judge Jean Norris, was New York City’s first female judge. She had a reputation for being heavily biased against both black women and sex workers.” Mabel was sent to the Bedford Hills Reformatory of Women for three years.
Mabel collected and helped preserve African-American and lesbian history. She gifted her own story to the Lesbian Herstory Archives through interviews, videos and photographs and, in 1976, donated her entire lesbian book collection to the archives.
Despite her many accomplishments and contributions, Mabel Hampton was most proud making a home and marriage with Lillian Foster. Mabel and Lillian met in 1932 and their 46 year-long committed relationship was only cut short by Lillian’s death in 1978.
“Through her more than eighty years of life, Ms. Hampton worked as a singer, dancer, domestic worker, and hospital janitor, always moving in a lesbian world. She attended parties thrown by Al’lia Walker during the Harlem Renaissance; danced in the Garden of Joy, a Harlem nightclub; marched with thousands of mourners when Florence Mills died; and socialized with the two Ethels, as she called them – Ethel Waters and her girlfriend. But Ms. Hampton’s proudest moments were not these. For over thirty years she made a home with her wife, Lillian Foster, on 169th street in the Bronx. It was here on her street that Miss Mabel, as she was known, lived the deeper history of her days.” – Joan Nestle
Mabel gave everything she had to political movements, causes, people, and organizations she was passionate about. Not only did she play such a pivotal role in the Lesbian Herstory Archives, she was involved in Senior Action in a Gay Environment (SAGE) and had a lifetime devotion to New York City pride marches. Mabel was far from rich, but what she did have went to the fight.
Mabel Hampton is an indescribably critical figure in lesbian and black history. She was incredibly brave, creative, compassionate, dedicated, and highly enthusiastic towards everything she put her energy towards. Thank you Mabel!
