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Hunter said on one recent Sunday, the club drew 300 people for a rap competition. On Sunday afternoons, the club hosts the weekly Old School Dominoes, Spades and Biz Wiz Tournament.Īnd on Sunday nights for the last few months, the Elm & Pearl has been blazing yet another trail, as the only gay bar to host a straight night. Friday is men’s night, and Saturday is women’s night. In the last few years, due to the economy, the Elm & Pearl has scaled back to only weekend hours. “So many entertainers have started on that very stage right there,” Blade said from the DJ booth on a recent Saturday night, listing Racquell Lord, Sophia McIntosh and Kennedy Davenport among them. But the club still plays a major role in the festivities, hosting events like Saturday night’s block party.Īnd while times have changed, people like Clinton Blade - aka DJ 008 - said they believe there will always be a need for a “show bar” like the Elm & Pearl. The Elm & Pearl remained the primary organizer of Black Pride up until about five years ago, before Hunter said it became too much work and other organizations took over. They decided to schedule Dallas’ Black Pride celebration the same weekend as the Grambling State-Prairie View football game at the Cotton Bowl, because it was already the biggest African-American weekend in Dallas. “I thought oh my God, they have 5,000 people, and their club is half the size of ours,” Hunter said of Splash. Metro decided to launch what was originally called Dallas Black Gay and Lesbian Pride. Hunter said it was after a trip to Splash, Houston’s Black Pride event, about 15 years ago that he and others at the “Anybody doing a night, it definitely is different than having a club that is minority owned and minority specific as far as patrons.” “I’m 45, so people were raised on the Metro, i.e. “That was the birth of the Dallas Black Pride movement, and it’s been a staple for visitors during Pride and outside of Pride.
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“It’s the first club that’s for us by us,’ Myers said. Kirk Myers, one of the organizers of this weekend’s Dallas Black Pride events, said it’s an important distinction. While other gay bars in Dallas, including Havana and The Brick, offer African-American themed nights, the Elm & Pearl remains the city’s only black-owned gay club. Hunter managed the Metro until eight years ago, when he and Baker bought the club, which is now called Club Elm & Pearl (after the corner it occupies). “Based on all those things, we felt like we did not have a voice, so we started our own gay club.”Īfter Hunter and Baker, who’ll celebrate 30 years as a couple in December, moved to Dallas from Oklahoma City in 1987, Hunter would become one of the original employees of the Metro, a gay black nightclub on Elm Street nestled between downtown and Deep Ellum. “That was pretty much customary in Dallas - you had to have three IDs,” Baker said. Other times, black patrons were required to have multiple forms of ID or were subject to cover charges that didn’t apply to whites.
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Glenn Hunter and Ricky Baker said they’re old enough to recall the discrimination black patrons once faced at gay bars in Dallas.ĭuring one visit from their native Oklahoma in the 1980s, Hunter and Baker said they were accompanied by an American Indian friend who could pass for white.Īlthough everyone in their party had Oklahoma driver’s licenses, the American Indian friend was allowed into a gay bar on Cedar Springs, while the others were told they needed Texas IDs. They will celebrate 30 years as a couple in December. PARTNERS IN BUSINESS, LIFE | Co-owners Ricky Baker, left, and Glenn Hunter, stand behind the bar at the Elm & Pearl.