History
The bar was established in November of 1966. Two months later, on the night of New Year's 1967, several plain-clothes police officers infiltrated the Black Cat Tavern. After arresting several patrons for kissing as they celebrated the occasion, the undercover police officers began beating several of the patrons and ultimately arrested thirteen patrons and three bartenders. This created a riot in the immediate area that expanded to include the bar across Sanborn Avenue called New Faces where officers knocked down the owner (a woman) and beat two bartenders unconscious.
Several days later, this police action incited a civil demonstration of over 200 attendees to protest the raids. The demonstration was organized by a group called PRIDE (Personal Rights in Defense and Education). The protest was met by squadrons of armed policemen. Two of the men arrested for kissing were later convicted under state law and registered as sex offenders. The men appealed, asserting their right of equal protection under the law, but the U.S. Supreme Court did not accept their case.
It was from this event that the publication The Advocate began as a newspaper for PRIDE (Personal Rights in Defense and Education). Together the raid on the Black Cat Tavern and later the raid on The Patch in August 1968 inspired the formation of the Metropolitan Community Church (led by Pastor Troy Perry).
These events pre-dated the Stonewall riots by over two years.
On November 7, 2008, the site was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.
After operating under several names, The Black Cat Tavern reopened on November 30, 2012.
The Black Cat, a new Sunset Junction bar and restaurant that has adopted the name of an old bar that operated in the same space more 40 years ago and played an important role in the gay rights movement.
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