#lillian foster

[stormysapphic]

Lillian Foster, lifelong partner of Mabel Hampton, 1942. "…When I first met her, in 1932, she was, to me … a duchess — the grand duchess — and I can't remember what she called me now. But later in life, a number of years later, I named her. I got angry with her one day and I called her the 'Little Bear' and she called me the 'Big Bear,' and of course, that hung on to me all through life. And now we're known to all our friends as the 'Big Bear' and the 'Little Bear.'" — Mabel Hampton on Lillian Foster, 1979 Source: The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader, edited by Joan Nestle, 1992.

[genderoutlaws]

Harlem Renaissance singer/dancer and lesbian activist Mabel Hampton photographed alongside her lifelong partner Lillian Foster. During their 46 year relationship, they referred to each other as husband and wife. | c. 1940s

[blackqueernotables]

[historybizarre]

Harlem Renaissance dancer, domestic worker, archivist, philanthropist, early lesbian activist; in her lifetime, Mabel Hampton was many, many things.

Hampton spent the 1920s dancing in all-black productions and private parties with stars like Jackie “Moms” Mabley and Ethel Waters. She danced in a chorus line at Harlem’s Garden of Joy nightclub, which catered to a primarily gay and lesbian clientele. She eventually became an actress at the Cherry Lane theater.

The artistic, cultural, and political setting of the Harlem Renaissance gave Hampton access to an entire gay and lesbian community. Her recollections of New York’s lesbian parties in the late 1910s and 1920s would provide a window into gay life in New York City, and recount the terms lesbians and queer women used to refer to themselves. In her recorded oral history, Hampton said the women of her time used to identify themselves as “bulldykers and ladylovers, studs and butch.”

[blackqueercharacters]

Mabel Hampton

Mabel Hampton was a famous African-American lesbian activist. She was a dancer in New York City in the 1920s, where she starred in all-black productions during the Harlem Renaissance. Mabel Hampton was in a romantic relationship with Lillian Foster, for 46 years until Foster's death. 

On a meager income, she managed to make many financial contributions to many gay and lesbian organizations.  Hampton collected memorabilia, letters, and other records documenting her history, providing a window into the lives of black women and lesbians during the Harlem Renaissance. She left a legacy of invaluable archival materials to the Lesbian Herstory Archives. She also marched in the first National Gay and Lesbian March on Washington. Then in 1984, she spoke before thousands of onlookers at New York City Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade, where, she is quoted as saying, "I, Mabel Hampton, have been a lesbian all my life, for 82 years, and I am proud of myself and my people. I would like all my people to be free in this country and all over the world, my gay people and my black people."

[patrickjaneisredjohn]

Lillian: I can't help thinking that if I'd stayed there, if I had just gone and talked to Alan, he'd still be alive.

Jane: Mm. Most likely you'd both be dead.

Lillian: With the way I feel, I might prefer that.

Jane: That feeling will pass.

Lillian: What do you know about that?

Jane: Enough.