Remembering Stonewall

E.G. Smith, left, and his mother, Norma Isaacs, 88, sitting under an umbrella with a sign that reads, “Grandma For Gays,” ride past the site of the original Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village during the annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade on Sunday, June 25, 1989. A record 150,000 people marched down Fifth Avenue, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots which gave birth to the gay rights movement. (AP Photo/Sergio Florez)
E.G. Smith, left, and his mother, Norma Isaacs, 88, sitting under an umbrella with a sign that reads, "Grandma For Gays," ride past the site of the original Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village during the annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade on Sunday, June 25, 1989. Sergio Florez / AP, file
E.G. Smith, left, and his mother, Norma Isaacs, 88, sitting under an umbrella with a sign that reads, “Grandma For Gays,” ride past the site of the original Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village during the annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade on Sunday, June 25, 1989. A record 150,000 people marched down Fifth Avenue, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots which gave birth to the gay rights movement. (AP Photo/Sergio Florez)
E.G. Smith, left, and his mother, Norma Isaacs, 88, sitting under an umbrella with a sign that reads, "Grandma For Gays," ride past the site of the original Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village during the annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade on Sunday, June 25, 1989. Sergio Florez / AP, file

Remembering Stonewall

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It started with a place called the Stonewall Inn.

Gay bars had been raided by police for decades. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people had been routinely arrested and subjected to harassment and beatings by the people who were meant to protect them.

But one night, in this place called the Stonewall Inn, when the police stormed in to continue their abuse, the clientele fought back.

Remembering Stonewall,” produced by Dave Isay of Sound Portraits and StoryCorps, was was first broadcast in 1989, on the 20th anniversary of the uprising. It was the first documentary, in any medium, to explore what happened that night, and it weaves together the perspectives of survivors, historians, and people who were deeply affected by the events that night.