Cleveland Black Pride was a Black LGBTQ+ “educational advocacy organization” formed by Jasper Slaughter, Melvin Foote, and Sharon Young in 1996. Slaughter, Foote, and Young formed Cleveland Black Pride Inc. to facilitate the process of planning, organizing, and fundraising a weekend of “self-recognition, Pride, and communal celebration” dedicated to and for Cleveland’s Black LGBTQ+ and same gender loving communities. Cleveland Black Pride Inc. hosted Cleveland’s 1st annual Black gay pride event, the Black Gay Pride Weekend, in 1997. Cleveland Black Pride Inc. subsequently applied for and attained nonprofit status in 1998.
After 2004, Cleveland Black Pride Inc. collaborated with BlackOut Unlimited and other Black LGBTQ+ organizations to host the Black Unity/Black, Gay and Proud Celebration, an annual event celebrating Black LGBTQ+ pride in Cleveland. In 2009, Cleveland Black Pride Inc. organizationally restructured and subsequently resumed hosting both Cleveland Black Pride and the newly-independent State of Black Gay America Symposium.
Additional information coming soon.
Resources
- “Black Pride Moves Toward Tax-Exempt Status.” Gay People’s Chronicle. Pride Guide 1998. Page B-29.
- Cudnik, Doreen. “Two Events Will Celebrate Black Gay-Lesbian Culture.” Gay People’s Chronicle. Pride Guide 1997. Page A-11.
- Cudnik, Doreen. “Black Pride is Set for August.” Gay People’s Chronicle. June 20, 1997. Pages 1, 12.
- Cudnik, Doreen. “Cleveland Joins 4 Other Cities With its First Black Pride Fest.” Gay People’s Chronicle. August 29, 1997. Pages 1, 7.
- Negron, Sidney. “Black Gay Pride.” Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.
- Roberts, Lena. “Full Weekend of Events Set for Black Pride in August.” Gay People’s Chronicle. Pride Guide 2010. Page 10.