Dr. Charles Ford continued his local book signing tour for the book “LGBT Hampton Roads” Saturday, April 9 at Prince Books in downtown Norfolk. Dr. Ford and his co-author, Dr. Jeffrey L. Littlejohn, an associate professor of history at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas started work on this project in 2012 and features images and photographs that take readers on the long, interesting and sometimes tumultuous history of LGBT persons in Hampton Roads. The following jacket copy summarizes the scope of the book.
“Virginia’s Hampton Roads region has long attracted diverse and mobile people, some of whom embraced same-sex love or fluid gender identities long before lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities identified as such. By the mid-1900s, Hampton Roads would lead the state in its development of LGBT institutions and infrastructure.
Our Own Press would chronicle the extraordinary burst of creativity and activism that seemed to place LGBT developments in the region on a national stage. In the late 1980s and 1990s, however, military crackdowns and the HIV/AIDS epidemic devastated the leadership of local LGBT communities.
Only in the new century would there be a renaissance of networking and engagement to bring the annual Pride Festival to center stage at Town Point Park in Norfolk.”
Dr. Ford regularly conducts walking history tours of downtown Norfolk and will be holding additional book signing events later this spring. His next signing event will be May 18, 5-7 p.m. at MJ’s Tavern in Norfolk and PrideFest in June.
“LGBT Hampton Roads” is available for purchase locally at Prince Books (buy local!) and is also available online at Arcadia Publishing. Proceeds from the book will benefit Hampton Roads Pride.
Dr. Charles H. Ford is professor and coordinator of history at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia. Dr. Jeffrey L. Littlejohn is an associate professor of history at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. Ford and Littlejohn have coauthored a number of important works in 20th-century Virginian history and were recipients of the Virginia Historical Society’s Rachal Award.
