The Black Nite Brawl of 1961
From Beers with Queers A True Crime Podcast
A basement bar. A drag queen with fire in her veins. And an attack turned counterattack. Long before Stonewall, one night in Milwaukee changed everything. It was 1961 when the Black Nite, a hidden queer bar downtown, became the site of a violent confrontation that would ignite the city’s first gay uprising. At the center stood Josie Carter, a fearless Black trans woman and performer who refused to back down when outsiders stormed the club. What followed was chaos, resistance, and a moment of de