Mabel Hampton (1902-1989) started her career as a Harlem Renaissance performer and transformed into an activist.
Mabel Hampton (1902-1989) started her career as a Harlem Renaissance performer and transformed into an activist.
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This month, we’re highlighting queer stars of the stage and screen: women who expanded the norms of gender and sexuality behind the scenes and in the limelight.
Today we’re talking about a woman who lived boldly and proudly. She was a Black lesbian who started her career as a Harlem Renaissance performer – and transformed into an activist. Let’s talk about Mabel Hampton.
Mabel Hampton was born on May 2, 1902, in Winston Salem, North Carolina. When she was just two months old, her mother passed away from suspected poisoning. So Mabel went to go live with her grandmother. She lived with her until she died in 1909. At the age of seven, Mabel’s life was uprooted. She was forced to migrate to New York City to live with her aunt and uncle. This transition was not easy.
When her uncle sexually assaulted her, Mabel ran away and didn’t look back. She recalls leaving the house with nothing but the dress she was wearing and seeking refuge at a playground. A woman named Bessie White found her and gave her a place to stay at her home in New Jersey.
Mabel enjoyed a few years of stability before Bessie passed away. At 17, Mabel was once again alone.
As she struggled to find her footing, Mabel was wrongfully arrested for prostitution. She spent two years in Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Westchester County.
Shortly after her release, Mabel began her career onstage. She joined an all-Black female troupe at Coney Island and worked as a chorus dancer. It was also during this time that an older woman introduced her to the word “lesbian”. A one-night fling with this woman opened up a new world for Mabel.
As the Harlem Renaissance bloomed, so did Mabel. She left the Coney Island group and took her talents to Harlem. Mabel danced in several all-Black productions and entertained guests at private parties thrown by notable Harlem Renaissance figures. Some highlights of her stage career were performing at the Garden of Joy for a predominantly queer audience, dancing at the Lafayette Theater, and working as an actress at the Cherry Lane Theater. This period was rich with socializing and self-discovery. She frequently spent time with stars like Gladys Bentley, Ethel Waters, and Alberta Hunter.
Mabel enjoyed performing.
But when the Harlem Renaissance came to an end, so did her theater career. She supported herself by cleaning homes for rich white families in New York.
One day, while waiting at the bus stop, Mabel saw a beautiful woman. This woman looked regal, like a duchess. Her name was Lillian.
Mabel and Lillian didn’t leave each other’s sides after that day at the bus stop. They fell in love and moved to an apartment in the Bronx.
Their home was a mecca for a close-knit group of creative and diverse friends. When they struggled financially, they supported themselves by throwing rent parties. Despite her best efforts, Mabel could never find work beyond the domestic kind. In the 1970s, she took a job as a janitor at the Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx. She held this position for nearly two decades.
Outside of work, Mabel enjoyed researching and collecting books on African American history and queer culture. She was a proud Black lesbian and leaned into all aspects of her identity. Mabel exemplified intersectionality.
When she addressed the crowd at the 1984 New York City Pride Parade, she said “I, Mabel Hampton, have been a lesbian all my life, for 82 years, and I am proud of myself and my people. I would like all my people to be free in this country and all over the world, my gay people and my black people.”
In 1976, Mabel and Lillian’s apartment burned down. Homeless, the pair moved in with their friend, Joan Nestle, and her partner in Park Slope, Brooklyn. This was a pivotal moment in Mabel’s life. She referred to it as an “adventure in lesbian families”. Mabel said, “Down here it was just like two couples, Joan and Deborah and Mabel and Lillian; we got along lovely, and we played, we sang, we ate; it was marvelous! I will never forget it.”
Joan had founded the Lesbian Herstory Archives out of this apartment a couple of years earlier. The Archives were meant to preserve lesbian heritage. Mabel was a founding member. She made it her job to tell the stories of Black lesbians in the 20th century. She would also greet visitors and in 1976, she donated her substantial collection of lesbian pulp fiction novels.
In 1978, after 46 years together, Mabel lost the love of her life. Heartbroken, she threw herself into the causes and activities that fulfilled her. She marched in the first national gay and lesbian civil rights march in Washington, DC, and appeared in the films “Silent Pioneers” and “Before Stonewall.” She was also an active member of Senior Action in a Gay Environment.
On October 26, 1989, Mabel Hampton passed away.
She is celebrated for her fearlessness and her commitment to civil rights and social justice. When asked the question “When did you come out?”, Mabel simply replied “What do you mean? I was never in!”
All month, we’re talking about queer stars of the stage and screen.
For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow!