Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-314) and index.
Contents:
Introduction: History reclaimed -- Act I: Fire -- Brotherhood of men -- Sunday service -- Gay liberation -- United we stand -- Act II: Fallout -- Mayhem -- Call for aid -- Liberation descends -- Visions -- Fun house -- Firetraps -- In memoriam -- Act III: Legacy -- Deliverance -- Downfall -- Rally forth -- Last resort -- Coda: Second line.
Summary:
"Fieseler chronicles the ... event that claimed the lives of thirty-one men and one woman on June 24, 1973, at a New Orleans bar, the largest mass murder of gays until 2016. Relying on ... access to survivors and archives, Fieseler creates [a] ... portrait of a closeted, blue-collar gay world that flourished before an arsonist ignited an inferno that destroyed an entire community"--Amazon.com. "Buried for decades, the Up Stairs Lounge tragedy has only recently emerged as a catalyzing event of the gay liberation movement. In revelatory detail, Robert W. Fieseler chronicles the tragic event that claimed the lives of thirty-one men and one woman on June 24, 1973, at a New Orleans bar, the largest mass murder of gays until 2016. Relying on unprecedented access to survivors and archives, Fieseler creates an indelible portrait of a closeted, blue- collar gay world that flourished before an arsonist ignited an inferno that destroyed an entire community. The aftermath was no less traumatic--families ashamed to claim loved ones, the Catholic Church refusing proper burial rights, the city impervious to the survivors' needs--revealing a world of toxic prejudice that thrived well past Stonewall. Yet the impassioned activism that followed proved essential to the emergence of a fledgling gay movement. Tinderbox restores honor to a forgotten generation of civil-rights martyrs."--Publisher's description
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.