Thread by @NBCNews

“Any movement that does not take into account the intersectional approach is never going to achieve true liberation.”

How the Black freedom movement inspired early gay activists. nbcnews.to/37VY2KT

#NBCNewsThread (1/7)

On April 25, 1965, three teenagers refused to leave Dewey’s Restaurant in Philadelphia after employees denied service to homosexuals, according to early gay rights group the Janus Society. They were arrested, sparking protests outside the restaurant for five days. (2/7)

On May 2, three more people staged a second sit-in at Dewey’s, protesting for hours.

These sit-ins are among a long list of examples that show a “direct line” to the Black civil rights movement, according to history professor Marc Stein. (3/7)

Sit-ins organized by gay activists in the ‘60s appear to be directly inspired by protests held in 1960 by Black college students at Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, against racial segregation, Stein said. (4/7)

"Every single element of what we know of as Pride and gay rights and, especially, the pre-Stonewall homophile movement, was borrowed from the Black Freedom Movement," LGBTQ historian Eric Cervini said. nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-ou… (5/7)

“There's Black people in parts of both of those movements,” said Steven Fullwood, who documents Black history.

He mentioned Marsha P. Johnson, a central figure in the Stonewall uprising, which is referred to as a turning point in the gay rights movement. (6/7)

Today’s activists, Fullwood said, have to think about the LGBTQ equality movement as involving Black people and vice versa.

“This is not new. Read. Research. Build. You exist in a river of resistance. Know and embrace that history. It's waiting.” nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-ou… (7/7)