22 Facts About Mabel Hampton

Mabel Hampton was a significant contributor to the Lesbian Herstory Archives.

Mabel Hampton's mother died when she was two months old from poison; she was raised for seven years by her maternal grandmother.

Mabel Hampton lived there with her aunt and uncle for a short time.

Mabel Hampton ran away after a year, and lived with a white family in New Jersey from ages 8 to 17.

Mabel Hampton was released after serving 13 months of her three-year sentence.

Mabel Hampton performed at The Garden of Joy club and sang in the Lafayette Theatre Chorus.

Mabel Hampton was able to connect with other dancers, artists, and LGBT people through this work.

Mabel Hampton then became a hospital attendant and cleaning person for white families, retaining this career for a long time.

Mabel Hampton met Joan Nestle at this time, the daughter of one of the families she worked for, and developed a strong friendship with her.

Mabel Hampton then participated in the New York City Defense Recreation Committee in 1943, collecting cigarettes and other items for American World War II soldiers.

Mabel Hampton joined the Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York City in the mid-1970s, an organization co-founded by Joan Nestle.

Mabel Hampton contributed many physical artifacts and participated in several oral history recordings for the Archives.

Mabel Hampton worked for SAGE, an organization dedicated to providing for and supporting elderly queer people.

Mabel Hampton contributed monetarily to the Martin Luther King Memorial Fund as well as gay and lesbian organizations in spite of her working-class income.

Mabel Hampton attended performances of the Negro Opera Company, and appeared in the films Silent Pioneers and Before Stonewall, which both document the struggle for obtaining gay rights.

Mabel Hampton spoke at the New York City Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade in 1984.

Mabel Hampton was named the grand marshal for the New York City Gay Pride March in 1985.

Mabel Hampton attended and spoke at Old Lesbians Organizing for Change's first West Coast Conference in 1987.

Mabel Hampton died from pneumonia on October 26,1989, at St Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center.

Mabel Hampton was included after her death in the documentary Not Just Passing Through.

Mabel Hampton donated memorabilia, ephemera, letters, academic publications, documentary records, and lesbian pulp fiction which she had collected throughout her career to the Lesbian Herstory Archives in 1976.

Joan Nestle, after recording Hampton's oral histories in the late seventies, delivered "'I Lift My Eyes to the Hill': the Life of Mabel Hampton as Told by a White Woman", the first Kessler Lecture for the CUNY Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, in 1992.