Jun 4, 2025
Manonia Evans and Donna Burkett featured in Jet Magazine November 1971 for their attempt to obtain a marriage licenses as a lesbian couple which lead to a federal court case
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Manonia Evans and Donna Burkett featured in Jet Magazine November 1971 for their attempt to obtain a marriage licenses as a lesbian couple which lead to a federal court case
Donna Burkett and Manonia Evans in their Wiscoin home for Jet Magazine November 1971, photographer by Isaac Sutton and story by James M. Stephen Jr.
In October 1971, Donna Burkett and Manonia Evans, two Black American women, walked into the office of the Milwaukee County clerk to apply for a marriage license. The application was refused, they then filed lawsuit against the Eastern District of Wisconsin in the U.S District Court stating that they were refused due process and equal protection of law under the U.S constitution. The ended getting married in a ceremony on Christmas Day 1971. The wedding had 250 people attend. “ Burkett wore a black Edwardian tuxedo and Evans, a white floor-length gown with lace sleeves, a flowered scalloped cap, and an extended train.”
Source: mkelbgthist
Manonia Evans (right) and her wife Donna Burkett- One of the first same sex couples to petition the US government for marriage in 1971. They were denied and married by friends later that year.
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Today in Black Women’s History
On this date in 1971, Donna Burkett and Manonia Evans went to the Office of the Milwaukee County Clerk in Wisconsin to apply for a marriage license. Their application was refused by the clerk. The two women filed a lawsuit, which attracted national press, and was later dismissed. Burkett is quoted as saying, “The law should protect us and help us the way it does any two straight people who love each other and want to live together. That’s our civil rights; that’s what this is all about.”
Donna Burkett and Manonia Evans: Became One of the first same-sex couples to apply for a marriage license in 1971.
DECEMBER 25: Donna Burkett and Manonia Evans are married (1971)
Merry Christmas to all of those who celebrate! Today we are going to cover the story of two women named Donna Burkett and Manonia Evans who were married on December 25, 1971. Their unofficial wedding ceremony came at the end of one of the very first legal battles to fight for marriage equality in American history.
In a 1971 interview with GPU News, the news magazine of Milwaukee’s gay and lesbian community, Donna Burkett said, “ The law should protect us and help us the way it does any two straight people who love each other and want to live together...That’s our civil rights; that’s what this is all about” (x).
It all began on October 1, 1971. Donna and Manonia simply walked into the Office of the Milwaukee Country Clerk and attempted to apply for a marriage license. The county clerk at the time, Thomas Zablocki, told the two women that he could not accept their application on account of the fact that the state defined marriage as being between a man and woman. Although Donna and Manonia were fully aware of this fact when they walked into his office, it was that verbal rejection which allowed them to formally file a lawsuit stating that the state’s refusal to grant them a marriage license violated their civil rights.
America had never seen a story such as this before. Magazines such as Jet and The Advocate picked up Donna and Manonia’s story and followed the lawsuit until it was dismissed by District Judge Myron L. Gordon on January 19, 1972. Before they could wait to hear the verdict from the judge, however, Donna and Manonia held a wedding on Christmas Day 1971. Rev. Joseph Feldhausen officiated and over 250 of their friends and family were in attendance; the two women recall Donna having worn a black tuxedo with Manonia wearing a traditional white lace dress.
Although Donna and Manonia’s legal case was ultimately a failure, it was cases such as theirs which helped kick start the American marriage equality movement that would first gain traction in the 1990s. Their story serves as a reminder that gay and lesbian couples have always lived happy and successful lives with each other, regardless of if the government was willing to issue some piece of paper sanctioning that happiness.
-LC
Becoming Visible: An Illustrated History of Lesbian and Gay Life in Twentieth-Century America by Molly McGary and Fred Wasserman
