WASHINGTON: "Dupont residents push to dedicate Swann Street after William Dorsey Swann, the first self-described ‘Queen Of Drag’. Swann Street is currently believed to be named after Thomas Swann, a former Maryland Governor and slave-owner. But now, a group of Dupont neighbors is pushing to have the street, which stretches about five city blocks, dedicated in honor of William Dorsey Swann, a formerly enslaved Washingtonian, and the world’s first self-identified drag queen, whose contributions to drag, ball culture, and queer resistance span states and centuries.
“I’ve come to realize it means a lot to other people to be able to connect to the past in that way because we, for the most part, are not taught about our queer Black historical figures in the U.S", says historian and journalist, Channing Joseph.
According to Joseph’s research, Dorsey Swann is the first known person in history to have self-identified as a drag queen, hosting balls in often secret, private formats, decades before they’d gain more visibility in the Harlem drag ball scene of the 1920s and 1930s. The re-dedication follows a trend over the past two years of states and cities taking down statues and removing the names of Confederate leaders and slaveowners from schools, buildings, and streets. (In 2020, a D.C. committee recommended changing the names of more than 50 spaces across the city, although the effort has largely flopped.)"
https://dcist.com/story/22/07/14/dc-swann-street-william-dorsey-drag-queen/