Early on the morning of Saturday, June 28, 1969, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people rioted, following a
police raid on the
Stonewall Inn, a
gay bar at 53
Christopher Street in
Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan. This event, together with further protests and rioting over the following nights, marked a watershed moment in the modern
LGBT rights movement and the impetus for organizing
pride parades on a much larger scale. Veterans of the riot formed a group, the Stonewall Veterans Association, which has continued to drive the advancement of LGBT rights from the rioting at the Stonewall Inn, to the present day. In the weeks following the riots, 500 people gathered for a "Gay Power" demonstration in
Washington Square Park, followed by a march to Sheridan Square within the
West Village. On November 2, 1969,
Craig Rodwell, his partner
Fred Sargeant,
Ellen Broidy, and Linda Rhodes proposed an annual march to be held in New York City by way of a resolution at the
Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) meeting in
Philadelphia. We propose that a demonstration be held annually on the last Saturday in June in New York City to commemorate the 1969 spontaneous demonstrations on Christopher Street and this demonstration be called CHRISTOPHER STREET LIBERATION DAY. No dress or age regulations shall be made for this demonstration. We also propose that we contact Homophile organizations throughout the country and suggest that they hold parallel demonstrations on that day. We propose a nationwide show of support.
Liberation Day button promoting the second annual NYC Pride March on June 27, 1971 All attendees to the ERCHO meeting in Philadelphia voted for the march except for
Mattachine Society of New York, which abstained. Meetings to organize the march began in early January at Rodwell's apartment in 350
Bleecker Street. At first there was difficulty getting some of the major New York City organizations like
Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) to send representatives. Craig Rodwell and his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, Michael Brown, Marty Nixon, and
Foster Gunnison Jr. of Mattachine made up the core group of the CSLD Umbrella Committee (CSLDUC). For initial funding, Gunnison served as treasurer and sought donations from the national
homophile organizations and sponsors, while Sargeant solicited donations via the
Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop customer mailing list and Nixon worked to gain financial support from GLF in his position as treasurer for that organization. Other mainstays of the organizing committee were Judy Miller, Jack Waluska, Steve Gerrie and
Brenda Howard of GLF. Believing that more people would turn out for the march on a Sunday, and so as to mark the date of the start of the Stonewall uprising, the committee scheduled the date for the first march for Sunday, June 28, 1970. With Dick Leitsch's replacement as president of Mattachine NY by Michael Kotis in April 1970, opposition to the march by Mattachine ended.
Christopher Street Liberation Day on June 28, 1970, marked the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots with a march from
Sheridan Square, covering the 51 blocks to the
Sheep Meadow in
Central Park. The march took less than half the scheduled time due to excitement, but also due to wariness about walking through the city with gay banners and signs. Although the parade permit was delivered only two hours before the start of the march, participants encountered little resistance from onlookers.
The New York Times reported (on the front page) that the march extended for about 15 city blocks. Reporting by
The Village Voice was positive, describing "the out-front resistance that grew out of the police raid on the Stonewall Inn one year ago". There was also an assembly on Christopher Street. ==Organizers==