Liminality and Underground Economies Supporting Black, Sexual Minority Women in the Mid-Twentieth Century

In the mid-twentieth century, specific characteristics of informal labor markets facilitated the development of lesbian desire among African American women with those attractions. We analyze archival materials on Black lesbians in Detroit, Michigan, to theorize underground economies as liminal spaces that served three key functions. First, off-the-books jobs provided income-generating opportunities to reduce financial precarity. Second, workspaces in urban leisure industries attracted Black sexual minorities as both laborers and consumers, offering the potential for self-discovery and a sense of belonging. During this period, the temporal nature that defined work in underground labor markets was consistent with the transitional state of lesbian sexuality as an identity around which to cohere alongside race. The liminality inherent in Black women’s self-definitions was supported by the temporal attributes of physical spaces where their work took place. Together, those experiences laid the groundwork for a nascent sexual community that could center African American culture.