In July of 1977, two Black gay men, Robert Hairston and John Morrison, filed a discrimination with the New York State Division of Human Rights after being denied entrance to Mean Alice’s, then Buffalo’s most popular night club. Though their brave act did not prevent the staff of Mean Alice’s from continuing to deny entrance to Black customers, it did inspire a wave of Black gay community organizing. Black gay community members began to plan dance nights such as Just Us and Jack Your Body, and these social nights went on to inspire advocacy groups for Black LGBTQ people, such as the MOCHA Project, Black Men Talking, and the African American Queens.

Planned in conjunction with Black Intelligent Ladies Alliance (BILA) and Sweets, the only lesbian bar on Buffalo’s East Side, Black In Time was a tribute to the Black gay activists who built community in Buffalo from the 1970s to the present. One side of the bar featured an exhibit, displaying items from the personal archives of Buffalo ball scene pioneers Ebony Johnson and Escada Sanders, as well as famed trans griot Ari Moore. On the other side of the bar, a chronological dance party, headed by DJ Remmz, featured the music that would have been popular at dance parties like Jack Your Body and Just Us.

Today, items from the exhibit are viewable at the Madeline Davis Archives at Buffalo State University–though portions of the exhibit have been known to tour the region, most recently at the Qinfolk Festival in Ithaca, New York.