It has been said that societal constraints and oppression encourage creativity, thought and action. Most of us have heard this infamous quote: “Art is never created in a vacuum. It reflects lived realities, challenges, injustice and gives voice to stories that are often unheard.”
In the case of many of the individuals included here, their desire to achieve and create may have indeed grown from that very reality, as evidenced by the lives they lived.
If you find them as intriguing as we have, do some more digging! On YouTube you’ll find a clip of George Washington Carver speaking, Sister Rosetta Tharpe singing and playing the electric guitar, Angela Davis sharing stories about her life, Alvin Ailey discussing dance, and so much more.
In recognition of Black History Month, we’ve chosen eight people from the LGBTQ+ community who have left a mark on our world. Of those, five are no longer with us, while three are here still. All continue to leave a lasting, one-of-a-kind impact.
Alvin Ailey
Born in Rogers, Texas, in 1931, Alvin Ailey was raised by a single mother in the segregated South. His childhood memories of gospel music, spirituals and “honky-tonks” profoundly shaped his later work. After moving to Los Angeles at age 12, he began training with Lester Horton, who founded one of the first racially integrated dance companies in the U.S. Ailey moved to New York in 1954 to perform on Broadway before founding his own troupe in 1958.
Founded in 1958, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater became one of the most respected dance companies in the United States and brought African American culture to audiences around the globe. Ailey choreographed 79 ballets, among them “Revelations” (1960), a masterpiece celebrating Black resilience and faith that remains one of the most-performed modern dance pieces in history. He established The Ailey School (1969) and Ailey II (1974) to train and provide opportunities for young dancers. Among his numerous accolades are the Kennedy Center Honors (1988) and a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by Barack Obama in 2014.
A gay man, Ailey remained intensely private about his personal life due to the social stigma prevalent during most of his lifetime. While he maintained romantic relationships exclusively with men, he did not come out publicly during his lifetime. He died on Dec. 1, 1989, from AIDS-related complications at age 58. To shield his mother from the stigma then associated with HIV/AIDS, he initially requested the cause of death be listed as a rare blood disease. Today, he is widely celebrated as a pioneering queer figure in the arts.
Alan Emtage
An inventor and creator who conceived and implemented the first version of ‘Archie’ in 1989, Alan Emtage created the world’s first internet search engine. The concept pioneered many of the techniques used by modern public search engines leading directly to today’s Google, Yahoo, and Bing. For a time, he worked as a systems administrator for the School of Computer Science at McGill University in Montreal. He was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame (Innovators Category 2017) by the Internet Society (ISOC), of which he is a founding member. Since 1998, he has been a partner at Mediapolis, Inc., a small web development company based in New York City. Now 62 and long an openly gay man, he makes his home in NYC and Provincetown, Mass.
George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver was born into slavery sometime around 1864; he became a world-renowned agricultural scientist and educator best known for his work at the Tuskegee Institute, where he spent 47 years revolutionizing Southern farming.
Carver popularized the concept of crop rotation through the use of nitrogen-fixing crops like peanuts and sweet potatoes to restore soil nutrients depleted by years of cotton farming. He developed over 300 products from peanuts — including dyes, plastics, cosmetics, and medicinal oils; and another 118 products from sweet potatoes. He also created a movable school to bring agricultural education directly to poor rural farmers.
In 1921, he captured national recognition when he testified before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, securing a tariff that protected the American peanut industry. He was a respected advisor to presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as leaders like Henry Ford and Mahatma Gandhi.
Most historical interpretations of Carver’s personal life suggest he was likely gay or bisexual, though such identities were rarely public during his lifetime. He reportedly spent much of his life with Austin W. Curtis, Jr. from 1934 until his death in 1943. Carver lived and worked with Curtis, a fellow scientist, and the two shared a relationship described by some historians as a life partnership. The two were often seen walking arm-in-arm on campus, and Carver left his entire estate to Curtis.
Carver died on Jan. 5, 1943, His exact age was unknown, but it is likely he was 78 or 79. He passed away at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama after falling down the stairs at his home and was subsequently buried on the campus of Tuskegee, near the grave of Booker T. Washington.
Angela Davis
Born in 1944, Angela Davis is a renowned American political activist, scholar, and author who rose to prominence in the late 1960s as a radical feminist, Marxist and member of the Communist Party USA. She is a leading advocate for prison abolition, intersectional feminism and social justice. She publicly came out as a lesbian in an interview with Out Magazine in 1997.
Now 81, Davis is retired, although she is still recognized as a Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, focusing on the history of consciousness and feminist studies. She has authored numerous influential books, including Women, Race, & Class (1983) and Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003).
In 1970, she was charged with conspiracy and acquitted in a high-profile trial that made her a global icon of resistance. She later founded Critical Resistance, a leading organization working to abolish the prison-industrial complex. In 1980 and 1984, she ran as the Communist Party USA’s vice-presidential candidate; and in 2020, she was named one of Time magazine’s Most Influential People. She continues to discuss the intersections of race, gender and sexual orientation in her advocacy, although she generally tends to keep her personal relationships private.
Audre Lorde
A Caribbean-American “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior and poet,” Audre Lorde used her literature and activism to combat injustice. A pioneering intersectional feminist, she challenged racism, sexism, homophobia and classism through works like “Sister Outsider” and “Zami.” A prolific writer of poetry and essays, notable works included “The Black Unicorn” (1978) and “The Cancer Journals” (1980), which documented her battle with cancer. She taught as a professor of English at John Jay College and Hunter College, and was named the Poet Laureate of New York from 1991-1992. Married to Edward Rollins from 1962 to 1970, the relationship produced two children before she embraced her lesbian identity. She later had long-term relationships with Frances Clayton, beginning in 1972, and later Dr. Gloria Joseph. Lorde died on Nov. 17, 1992, at the age of 58. Her cause of death was liver cancer, which she developed following a 14-year battle with breast cancer. She passed away at her home in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Island.
Reiss Reid
A black queer-identified immunologist, Reiss Reid focuses on developing cancer treatment by genetically modifying the immune system. Beginning as a young man, Reid found himself captured by science and related topics like astrophysics and ecology. As a child, he was unaware of any Black or LGBTQ+ scientists, but that didn’t lessen his perseverance.
From an interview with the website 500 Queer Scientists: “Being that black queer scientist makes me immensely proud. For me being a scientist isn’t simply what I do but it is a fundamental part of who I am. In high school I dreamed of one day being a famous scientist working on ground breaking new medicines to meaningfully impact the lives of others. Today I get to spend my days leading a team that works on genetically modifying the immune system of cancer patients in the hopes of finding … treatments for a disease that affects so many.”
Reed is a senior research scientist at biotech in the San Francisco Bay area. He has a BSc in biomedical science from the University of Manchester UK, and a PhD in cancer immunology from Cardiff University UK. His postdoctoral research in CAR-T therapy took place at the University of Pennsylvania.
Bayard Rustin
Born in West Chester, Penn., Bayard Rustin was a key strategist of the American Civil Rights Movement who mentored Martin Luther King, Jr. and organized the 1963 March on Washington. As an openly gay man often sidelined due to his sexual orientation, he was a staunch advocate for nonviolence, labor rights and later, LGBTQ+ rights. Out of the closet during a time of intense stigma, this often forced Rustin to work behind the scenes to avoid harming the movement. In the 1980s, he became a public advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, specifically drawing attention to the AIDS crisis. Rustin died on Aug. 24, 1987, at the age of 75. He passed away at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City from cardiac arrest following surgery for a ruptured appendix. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 by President Barack Obama.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Born Rosetta Nubin in Cotton Plant, Ark., in 1915, Sister Rosetta Tharpe was a pioneering gospel singer and electric guitarist known as the “Godmother of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Raised by an evangelist mother, she began playing guitar at age four and performing professionally by age six. Merging gospel with blues and swing, she achieved fame in the 1930s and 1940s with hits like “Strange Things Happening Every Day” and was known for her flamboyant, influential style. A queer, bisexual Black woman, she often toured with her partner, Marie Knight, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. Tharpe died on Oct. 9, 1973, at age 58 in Philadelphia, Penn., following a stroke. She passed away at Temple University Hospital and is buried at Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia.