Season 15: Episode 2: Mabel Hampton

Season 15: Episode 2: Mabel Hampton

Author: Eric Marcus June 25, 2026 Duration: 22:05
Mabel Hampton was a performer and domestic worker who lived as an out lesbian in New York City from 1920 until her death in 1989. Her recorded oral histories offer a rare firsthand account of Black lesbian life during the Harlem Renaissance. Visit our ⁠episode webpage⁠ for background information, archival photos, and other resources, as well as a transcript of the episode. ——— Audio source: Mabel Hampton Oral History Collection, used by permission of the Lesbian Herstory Archives. ———

Eric Marcus brings voices out of the past and into the present with Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive. This isn't a dry historical lecture; it's a collection of intimate conversations, built from rare archival recordings that many thought were lost. Each episode feels like sitting down with someone who was there, offering a personal window into the pivotal moments and everyday struggles that have shaped the LGBTQ community. You'll hear from towering figures of the movement alongside people whose names you might not know-ordinary individuals who displayed extraordinary courage. These are the witnesses, the champions, and the quiet heroes whose stories form the bedrock of this history. Listening, you get the raw, unvarnished emotion in their own words, from the fear and defiance of early activism to the hard-won joys of living authentically. The podcast moves across decades, connecting personal diaries, long-shelved interviews, and firsthand accounts into a powerful, human tapestry. It’s about more than just events; it’s about the lived experience, the culture, and the personal health-both mental and physical-of a community fighting for its place. Through these oral histories, the archive becomes a living, breathing conversation, ensuring that this vital history is remembered not as abstract facts, but as the deeply personal stories it truly is.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
Podcast Episodes
Stonewall 55: Episode 3: “Say It Loud! Gay & Proud!” [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:09
Like so many other acts of LGBTQ resistance, the 1969 Stonewall riots could have become a footnote in history. But the protests and organizing that followed launched a new phase in the fight for LGBTQ rights. Hear how an…
Stonewall 55: Episode 1: Prelude to a Riot [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:05
Conflict has context. In this first episode of Making Gay History’s Stonewall season, we hear stories from the pre-Stonewall struggle for LGBTQ rights. We travel back in time to the turbulent 1960s and take you to the ti…
Stonewall 55: Episode 0: Myth & Meaning [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:01
Can historical and emotional truth coexist? For the 55th anniversary of the uprising, Eric and fellow LGBTQ history expert Ken Lustbader talk to Stonewall National Monument visitors and let a few myths slip by to uncover…
Bonus: Feminist Bookstores: A Love Story — with June Thomas [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:27
As a bookish lesbian growing up in working-class England, June Thomas developed an early love of bookstores. After moving to the U.S. in the 1980s, she found community in the feminist bookstores of the era, as she recoun…
Dismantling a Diagnosis: Episode 2: The Cure [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:18
A half-century ago, millions of homosexuals were cured with the stroke of a pen when the American Psychiatric Association decided to change its diagnostic manual and remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders…