The best events come from grassroots organizing, quite literally, in this case for Atlanta Black Pride (ABP). Starting in the ‘80s, young, Black queer friend groups would hold picnics during Labor Day Weekend to celebrate “their unique experience in Atlanta’s LGBT community.” Every year, the picnics grew with new friends and partners across Atlanta’s parks and backyards, until it evolved into the annual Atlanta Black Pride, Inc. founded by their sponsor In the Life Atlanta (ITLA). The intent was to “formalize, smaller disparate events” under one banner. Now, Black queer folks come to Atlanta Black Pride every Labor Day Weekend from around the world to celebrate its legacy spanning more than four decades. The event now includes a variety of programming, from educational forums about STI testing and awareness, to erotic poetry nights, film screenings, block parties, and fashion shows – all designed to celebrate the richness of Black queer culture and community.
ITLA grew under Reverend Duncan Teague, a former Atlanta Pride board member, who knew a Black Pride could offer something more holistic. Teague himself spoke about his 1984 experience attending a pop-up picnic to Atlanta Magazine: “They were so beautiful… “I had never seen an outdoor event during the daylight in somebody’s backyard with this many Black gay men—it was astounding.”
The annual event was an answer to the Pride celebrations of the ‘80s and ‘90s that were not encompassing Atlanta’s Black queer community. Often, they were protests and celebrations organized largely by and for white gay men formed around privileged, upper-middle-class issues: marriage access, adoption debates, movie screenings, and parade and bar permits, for example. Black queer Pride focuses on issues central to the Black queer Experience: mental health awareness, proper healthcare access, and racism and intersectionality.
“The need for Atlanta Black Pride was born out of necessity, at the time we did not and was not invited to have a seat at the Atlanta Pride’s table,” Terrence Stewart, the CEO of one of Atlanta’s Black Pride organizations, told David Magazine in 2020. “Over the last five years that has changed, we often collaborate on several initiatives throughout the year.”
Make no mistake: there is no competition between the two.
“There is a very real need for spaces that are exclusively for LGBTQ or same-gender-loving Black people,” Atlanta Pride’s former executive director told NBC News in 2017. “There is a real need for people to have that space, because many queer communities are really a microcosm of the communities they frequent.”
Global Black Pride
This year, ABP is partnering with Global Black Pride in Atlanta.
“Atlanta is the Black mecca of the world already, GBP founder Micheal Ighodaro told Georgia Voice. “There’s a lot of history and a lot of movement about what it means to be Black, LGBTQ [person] celebrat[ing] Pride. So, we thought it was important to go back to the roots. [We know] the cultural relevance of what Atlanta is and what Georgia is, in general — and the South as well — to Black LGBTQIA people. We also know the significance of having a city that already has the largest Black pride in the world, so it made perfect sense for us to come to Atlanta.”
GBP was founded in 2020 in response to discrimination against Black Queer individuals in white gay spaces. The idea was a global, marathon Pride event that would pass the baton every three hours from South America to Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean before culminating in the US.
Issues Black Pride Can Amplify: Violence Against Black Trans Women
The way Pride looks changes for each community. The need for Pride as an advocacy tool is stronger than ever, especially for Black trans folks. Black trans women are significantly more likely to experience violence at the hands of a police officer, intimate partner, or perpetrator than their white counterparts. Just this August, Houston native Vanity Williams, an Air Force veteran in nursing school, was the 25th reported trans person to be the victim of a violent killing this year. Williams dreamed of owning a med spa and was described as someone “who made a safe space for everybody.”
Similarly, Atlanta’s own Shannon Boswell was the 20th reported homicide of a trans woman back in July. Tori Cooper, Human Rights Campaign Director of Community Engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative, is reported as saying, “Shannon lived her life out loud. Her death is a tragedy for her friends and family and the Atlanta community. And those who knew her, loved her. Too often trans women like Shannon are killed by people that we know. If we can’t trust people that we know, then who can we trust?” Although these cases are being actively pursued by police, there still has been no information released on potential suspects.
At the same time, a growing number of anti-trans bills are being passed nationwide, from children’s sports to drag shows. Just last year, the Human Rights Campaign announced a state of emergency as the number of anti-LGBTQ bills presented to Congress grew by over 500 – eighty of which were signed into law. The importance of Pride as a protest and visibility event is paramount now more than ever.
This year, to honor the legacy of Black trans activist Marsha P. Johnson, GBP will be hosting a Global Black Pride March on September 1, that will end at festival grounds in Piedmont Park. The march – not a parade – is intended to remind participants of Pride’s roots as a protest to the events of the Stonewall Riots.
You can find Atlanta Black Pride x Global Black Pride events from August 26-September 2 here.