In the early years, the bar was located in the basement of the Athens Hotel at 56 Mason Street in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood. The Black Cat opened in 1906, shortly after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Despite this victory, continued pressure from law enforcement agencies eventually forced the bar's closure in 1964. The Black Cat was at the center of a legal fight that was one of the earliest court cases to establish legal protections for gay people in the United States. During its second run of operation, it was a hangout for Beats and bohemians but over time began attracting more and more of a gay clientele, and becoming a flashpoint for what was then known as the homophile movement, a precursor to the gay liberation movement that gained momentum in the 1960s. The Black Cat re-opened in 1933 and operated for another 30 years. It originally opened in 1906 and closed in 1921. The Black Cat Bar or Black Cat Café was a bar in San Francisco, California.
Image courtesy of the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
