#1063 Black Cat Tavern

Title

#1063 Black Cat Tavern

Site information:

3909 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles

34.092004, -118.279809

Plaque information:

State plaque at site dedicated 2023

Private plaque (City of LA plaque)

State Plaque text:

Black Cat Tavern

At midnight on January 1, 1967, undercover LAPD officers raided the Black Cat Tavern in Silver Lake. 14 men were beaten, dragged outside, and arrested. Six men were charged with lewd conduct for same-sex kissing. Outrage over the raid spurred two new California gay rights groups to organize hundreds of protestors to demonstrate against police entrapment and arbitrary arrest. The peaceful demonstration that took place outside the Black Cat Tavern on February 11, 1967 was Southern California's first public protest for gay rights.

Events like the Black Cat Tavern protest, and earlier demonstrations at Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco, were critical milestones in California's LGBTQ+ history, opening the floodgates for new civil rights strategies within the LGBTQ+ community that led to the repeal of discriminatory laws in California.

Plaque placed by the California Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with The Black Cat, the California Landmark Foundation, and the Bill Beaver Project, October 1, 2023.

Private Plaque text:

The Black Cat

Site of the first documented LGBT civil rights demonstration in the nation held on February 11, 1967

OHP information:

Black Cat Tavern, located on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, was the site of the first LGBT civil rights demonstration in southern California. Following arrests of fourteen men on New Year's Eve 1966 at the Black Cat Bar for kissing, several hundred people protested at the Black Cat on February 11, 1967. The legal battle resulting from the Black Cat arrest laid the groundwork for California LGBT rights organizations to overturn California's sodomy laws.

Collection

Los Angeles County