On the night of January 14, 1887, in Washington DC, the drag queen was born, or at least the concept of the drag queen was revealed to the American public. Prior to this date, her Majesty William Dorsey Swann arranged balls in which men gathered in gowns of satin and silk and sashayed the night away. Such events went on for years, yet the existence of drag balls was only exposed to the American public on the night of January 14th, when the ball was raided by police. According to The Washington Critic, ‘six coloured men’ dressed in ‘female attire’ were arrested as ‘suspicious persons’.
As the years passed by, members of the public demonstrated their disapproval of drag balls, and such events continued to be raided. Swann and the attendees of his balls came to be known as The House of Swann. The House of Swann was no stranger to police confrontation, and Swann was arrested on multiple occasions for his participation in such events. Swann never accepted his arrests without a fight, and due to his resistance in times of intense social surveillance, he is now regarded as a pioneer of the black queer movement.
Besides newspaper articles and court evidence, there is little evidence of Swann’s existence, so we can only imagine what his character and personality were like. Other than a photo taken of one of his impersonations in 1902, there are also no publicly discovered photos of Swann, yet from what we do know, Swann was an endearing character. Though imprisoned for stealing books from The Washington Library Company in 1882, employees of the library petitioned for Swann to be pardoned as someone ‘gentle in his disposition’ and ‘courteous in his bearing’. It was unheard of for a black man to be so publicly supported by white individuals, so it is clear Swann must have had a striking impact on those he interacted with.
Even more extraordinary for the time was Swann’s open demonstration of his flamboyant character. Swann was unique in his open representation of black self-expression. His public representation contrasted the survival mechanisms of hypermasculinity and white submission which were forced on black men at that time. The extent to which racism permeated society is highlighted by W.E.B. DuBois’ observation of ‘the slave’ as having ‘stood a brief moment in the sun’ post-abolition, only to have ‘moved back again toward slavery’.
Famous black activist Booker T. Washington spread ideas of equality through messages of submissive integration. Acceptance of a black man’s role as a skilled labourer, rather than a man, was a method of gaining white ‘respect’. This narrative further highlights the extent to which Swann diverted from gender norms. Only one year after Washington’s speech encouraging black assimilation through submission, Swann requested a pardon from President Grover Cleveland for holding a drag ball. Though this was denied, it was the first instance in which an American took legal action to defend the “queer community’s right to gather without the threat of criminalization, suppression, or police violence” – very much a rejection of submission to hypermasculinity.
As indicated by the psychiatrist Dr Charles Hamilton referring to Swann’s ball attendees as ‘sexual perverts’, gender fluidity was not a concept society had grasped. The term ‘drag’ was first used to describe male actors who performed as women in Shakespearean theatre; it is believed the dresses they wore dragged across the floor, and the term drag was coined from this. Theatrical spheres were the main domain in which drag flourished, though these entertainers were more widely known as ‘gender impersonators’. These varied from ‘pantomime dames’ in Europe to ‘black-face minstrels’ in the US: cross-dressing was commonly portrayed as being for entertainment purposes only.
Swann was an important figure as he reshaped drag as a form of self-expression. Swann used drag to embrace and celebrate black masculinity, femininity, and spirit. Swann’s ball-goers performed traditional dances of black enslaved people such as the ‘cakewalk’ to reclaim their right to move freely again. Swann’s balls clearly had a long-lasting legacy as such dances are echoed in popular culture today, an example being Ru Paul’s Drag Race.
Swann, born in shackles, died a man who protected himself from white submission. He persistently fought against strict social regulations, and his legacy has a presence in modern-day drag. His balls were not just an act of self-expression, but a claim for human rights. He is remembered today as The Queen of Drag and was the founder of the exciting drag culture we have today.