Charles Francis on LGBTQ Archive Activism

AHR author Charles Francis speaks about his October 2019 issue article “Freedom Summer ‘Homos’: An Archive Story.” Francis is president of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., an LGBTQ history society that partners with pro bono legal counsel McDermott Will & Emery to undertake archival research that brings to light hidden and suppressed aspects of LGBTQ political history in order to educate the legal community, community leaders, and the media—work the society conceives of as “archive activism.” Francis spoke about his article with AHR editor Alex Lichtenstein and Florida International University historian of queer history Julio Capó Jr.