Ernestine Eckstein

Ernestine Eckstein (April 23, 1941 – July 15, 1992) was an African-American woman who helped steer the United States Lesbian and Gay rights movement during the 1960s.

She was a leader in the New York chapter of Daughters of Bilitis (DOB).

Her influence helped the DOB move away from negotiating with medical professionals and towards tactics of public demonstrations.

Her understanding of, and work in, the Civil Rights Movement lent valuable experience on public protest to the lesbian and gay movement.

Eckstein worked among activists such as Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, Barbara Gittings, Franklin Kameny, and Randy Wicker.

Eckstein was born in Indiana in 1941.

Her given name was Ernestine Delois Eppenger, though all her lesbian and gay activist work was done under the name Eckstein to protect herself from being outed in circles where it was not safe to be open.

She graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana in 1963.

Her undergraduate degree was in Magazine Journalism with a minor in Psychology and Russian.

She moved to New York City soon after graduation in 1963 at the age of twenty-two.

Upon moving she came into a lesbian identity and her activism as a lesbian began.

Eckstein says of her sexual orientation:

Eckstein began attending meetings of the New York Mattachine Society soon after she arrived in New York City, which led her to its sister organization DOB.

In 1965, debates around the direction of the homophile movement were heating up.

That same year Eckstein marched in Philadelphia at the first Annual Reminder Day and in front of the White House as the only person of color demonstrating.

The original Mattachine Society's “old guard” leaders (versus the independent Mattachine Society of Washington who initiated the 1965 protests) wanted to continue pursuing homosexual rights via negotiations with doctors and psychologists while the younger activist wing desired to take the issue of equal civil rights for homosexuals to the people through lobbying government officials and demonstrating.

In June 1965, DOB actually pulled out of the East Coast Homophile Organization (ECHO) because the coalition was increasing its involvement in protests for lesbian and gay rights.

Eckstein was an important lesbian representative of the activist wing.

She understood that she was living through a huge tactical shift for lesbian and gay activists and that it was an uphill battle.

She said, “I think our movement is not ready for any forms of civil disobedience.

I think this would solidify resistance to our cause.

This situation will change eventually.

But not now".

Eckstein believed that there should be a concentration on, “the discrimination by the government in employment and military service, the laws used against homosexuals,” and, “the rejection by the churches".

Eckstein, like the founder of the Black Panther Party, Huey Newton, saw the connection between black American's struggle for equality during the Civil Rights Movement and the lesbian and gay struggle for equality and fostered the connection.

To this day, many groups still do not acknowledge the connection between gay rights and rights for people of color.

In late 1965 and early 1966, Ernestine Eckstein and Frank Kameny corresponded by letters about Eckstein's wish to bring Kameny to speak on April 17, 1966 at DOB headquarters in New York City.

Eckstein wanted Kameny's help to reinforce to DOB officers and members the need for activism and activist strategies and tactics in moving forward the lesbian and gay movement.

Eckstein, writing to Kameny on February 12, 1966 said, “I want you to be free enough to say whatever you want, so to speak – about any aspect of the movement.

Keep in mind my particular aim: to get these people to realize there is such a thing as the homophile movement and possibly begin to develop a fuller concept of themselves as part of it.” However, in a letter dated February 17, 1966, Eckstein informs Kameny that the DOB organization had decided to disinvite Kameny to speak at DOB.

During the time that Eckstein was involved in DOB, until 1968, the “old guard” was still controlling the organization.

In the 1970s she became involved in the black feminist movement, in particular the organization Black Women Organized for Action (BWOA).

After three years in New York with the DOB Eckstein moved to Northern California to “focus on social justice issues…[she] joined Black Women Organized for Action…in the early 1970s". Much less is known about Eckstein after she left New York. Interviews with previous DOB members revealed, “Eckstein had gotten tired of all the political wrangling and disagreements within DOB over strategies and tactics” and wanted “more political organization.” She left the movement on the East Coast for other political work advocating for women of color in California.

Eckstein's involvement with political activism started in the Civil Rights Movement at Indiana State, as a NAACP chapter officer.

But Eckstein understood organizations like NAACP as, “structured with the white liberals in mind” and joined more progressive organizations like Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) once she moved to New York.

Psychologists considered homosexuality to be a mental illness until 1973, when it was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual in the third edition; until that point, homosexuality was perceived as a mental illness and therefore something to ‘fix’.

This debate was equally strong within the DOB; Eckstein's appointment as DOB New York chapter Vice President indicated a strategic push by the activist wing.

Marcia M. Gallo writes, “Her [Eckstein’s] plan was to reach out to women who saw the gay struggle as linked to other civil rights issues and hope that during her time as vice president of the local chapter she would help build a more social action oriented group".

It was not until 2012 that Ben Jealous, President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) declared, "Civil marriage is a civil right and a matter of civil law," confirming that LGBT rights are now acknowledged as civil rights struggles by the NAACP.

Frank Kameny was one of the most significant figures in the American gay rights movement, co-founding the Mattachine Society of Washington (MSW), and, inspired by Stokely Carmichael's creation of the phrase Black is beautiful, created the slogan “Gay is Good” for the gay civil rights movement.