Free and Queer: Black Californian Roots of Gay Liberation presents California as a pioneering site of sustained, Black-led struggles for LGBTQ equality, civil rights, and recognition. The exhibition recovers histories largely excluded from existing narratives and exposes powerful ways that print culture, artistic practice, and performance styles shaped, advanced, and interpreted Black queer social movements alongside political and legal activism.

Long before Stonewall, generations of queer Black Californians contributed to the fight for democracy and free expression. Free and Queer introduces visitors to remarkable sites, protagonists, and allies who supported LGBTQ rights, from the first decades of the twentieth century to the victory for marriage equality. The exhibition examines McCarthyism and repression, the eruption of the civil rights movement, avenues of protest during the AIDS crisis, as well as moments of celebration, critique, and mourning across generations. Composed from historical materials, including photographs, film, archival objects, vintage newspapers, and more, Free and Queer invites viewers to ask how history is transformed when Black queer culture is reclaimed as a significant part of California’s past.

Free and Queer: Black Californian Roots of Gay Liberation is curated by Susan D. Anderson, History Curator, CAAM, with researchers Sean Patrick Dickerson and Sela Mariama Kerr, and consultants Alan Bell and Lisbet Tellefsen, in association with ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, with special thanks to retired executive director Joseph Hawkins and curator Alexis Bard Johnson.