- Mabel Hampton (1902-1989), well known as an African American lesbian activist, was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Taken to Greenwich Village to live with an aunt and uncle when she was seven, she earned her keep by singing in the streets for pennies flung from windows. At age eight she ran away from home to escape her abusive uncle. In 1920 Hampton became a member of an all-girl dance troupe that performed in Coney Island. She also danced in Harlem cabarets, such as the Garden of Joy, and appeared in several all-Black productions at Manhattan’s Lafayette Theater. In 1938 Hampton met Lillian Foster. The two women became life-long partners, remaining together until Foster’s death in 1979. Hampton, a founding member of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, spent the last ten years of her life actively fighting for gay and lesbian rights.
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