A DC judge sentences William Dorsey Swann (1858-1925), born enslaved in Hancock, to 10 months in jail for “running a disorderly house” and a “Den of Iniquity.”
Swann, known locally as “drag queen,” is a local Washington fixture. He is the first to sponsor private “drag balls,” featuring the “cakewalk” dance from the slave era and the wearing of female costumes. He labels them drag balls because he says he has to drag his long dresses around.
Raided many times, he is arrested with 17 others at his 30th birthday party in 1888, dressed in a “gorgeous cream-colored dress.” Local newspapers cover the arrest, shaming the Black and white men attending the drag balls. After another arrest in1896 followed by 10 months in jail, Swann requests a pardon from President Grover Cleveland, making him the first American to defend the LGBTQ community’s right to gather. The request is denied,
His gatherings continue for several more decades. In later life he returns to Hancock, dying in 1925. Local officials burn his house soon after. In 2022 the Washington DC Council passes a resolution to dedicate Swann St. NW, near DuPont Circle to William Dorsey Swann. It was first thought to be named for Thomas Swann, a Maryland governor and enslaver.
