Lucy Komisar was a Village Voice reporter who covered the historic “Sip-In” at Julius’ Bar, which ended up becoming a watershed moment in the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement. Before and after that, she also covered and was involved in the women’s movement and the movement for Black civil rights, having served as a national vice-president of the National Organization for Women and editor of the Mississippi Free Press, among other positions. In her oral history, she talks about the effort to allow women to patronize McSorley’s Bar in the East Village, lunch counter sit-ins in the South, and more. 

Village Preservation maintains nearly 70 oral histories with figures who witnessed, participated in, or made significant history in our neighborhoods, including Jane Jacobs, Penny Arcade, Wolf Kahn, Jonas Mekas, Marlis Momber, Edwin Fancher, Margot Gayle, David Amram, Matt Umanov, Merce Cunningham, Joan Davidson, Richard Meier, Ralph Lee, Mimi Sheraton, John Guare, Calvin Trillin, and Chino Garcia.