Knights of the Clock

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The Cloistered Order of Conclaved Knights of Sophisticracy, [1] more commonly known as the Knights of the Clock, was an interracial homophile social club based in Los Angeles, California. The Knights were founded by Merton Bird, an African-American man, and W. Dorr Legg, his white lover. Sources differ as to the founding date of the organization, variously citing it as 1949, [2] 1950, [3] and 1951. [4] Regardless of the exact date, the Knights was one of the earliest gay organizations in the United States, with only the Society for Human Rights (established 1924), [5] the Veterans Benevolent Association (established 1945) [6] and possibly the Mattachine Society (established 1950) [7] pre-dating it.

The Knights were primarily a social club, including people of both sexes and family members of couples. [2] They also tried to address social problems that affected interracial couples, including employment counseling [8] and locating integrated housing for same-sex couples. [1] To that end, the Knights discussed the possibility of establishing communes throughout its existence, although no such communes were ever established. [2]

Although social functions routinely attracted as many as 200 participants, [2] at its core the Knights always remained a numerically small group and eventually disbanded in the mid-1950s. Several Knights, including Bird and Legg, went on to join ONE, Inc., another early homophile organization. [9] Sociologist Laud Humphreys cited the Knights as an example of the ability of people of different races to cross racial barriers through commonality of sexual identification. [10]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Faderman and Timmons, p. 112
  2. 1 2 3 4 Humphreys, p. 51
  3. ↑ Sagarin, p. 77
  4. ↑ Sears, p. 119
  5. ↑ Hogan and Hudson, p. 244
  6. ↑ Archer, p. 110
  7. ↑ Hogan and Hudson, pp. 382–383
  8. ↑ White, p. 30
  9. ↑ Faderman and Timmons, p. 116
  10. ↑ Humphreys, p. 85

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