At 1:20 a.m. on Saturday, 28 June 1969, 4 plainclothes policemen in dark suits, two patrol officers in uniform, and Detective Charles Smythe and Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine raided the Stonewall Inn. Police raids on gay bars were frequent—occurring on average once a month – and Stonewall had been raided a few days before. But bar management was usually informed in advance by the police and occurred early in the evening so business could resume.
With more than 200 patrons in the bar, the raid did not go as planned. Standard procedure was to line up the patrons, check their identification, and have female police officers take customers dressed as women to the bathroom to verify their sex, upon which any men dressed as women would be arrested. That night the police decided to take everyone (and all the liquor) to the station.
As the arrested waited outside for patrol wagons to arrive, a crowd of more than 100 people congregated. By the time the first patrol wagon arrived, Inspector Pine recalled that the crowd had grown to at least 10 times the number of people who were arrested. There was reportedly minor taunting of the police until a rumor circulated the police were beating patrons inside Stonewall. Then, as an unidentified woman was being led out in handcuffs complained that she had been beaten by an office and yelled at the crowd, “Why don’t you guys do something.” A police officer then picked her up and threw her into the patrol wagon, which sparked the ensuing riot. Marsha P. Johnson (who was a patron at Stonwall that night) and Sylvia Rivera (who was a bystander) were key figures in the starting the initial resistance to the police behavior.
The police, outnumbered by between 500 and 600 people, grabbed several people, including folk singer Dave Van Ronk and reporter Howard Smith, and barricaded themselves in the Stonewall.
Garbage cans, garbage, bottles, rocks, and bricks were hurled at the building, breaking the windows. A parking meter was ripped out of the sidewalk and used as a battering ram against the door of the Stonewall.
The Tactical Police Force arrived to free the police now trapped inside the building. The mob openly mocked the police, forming a kick line in front of them and chanting, “We are the Stonewall girls/ We wear our hair in curls/ We don’t wear underwear.” The police began beating them with nightsticks.
Police were not able to clear the building and the streets until 4 am. By then almost everything inside the Stonewall had been smashed, either by the mob, police, or both.
The next night, more than 1,000 people protested in front of the Stonewall, resulting in another riot with police and several more days of protest.
The Stonewall Inn closed a few weeks after the riots. The first Gay Pride marches were held on 27 June 1970 (Chicago) and 28 June 1970 (Los Angeles and New York).
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