"Unfortunately, the court wasn't ready for that," said Herb Selwyn, the attorney who appealed to the Supreme Court on the men's behalf.
Selwyn, 83, was one of few attorneys at the time who would represent gay clients. He took the Black Cat case pro bono and prepared a pocket-sized guide to legal rights that was distributed to patrons at gay bars.
"In those days, for a lawyer to represent gays, people would think they were gay, and that frightened a lot of lawyers," said Selwyn, who is heterosexual. "I didn't give a damn myself."
Early activists said they had few allies outside the gay community.
"You were dangerous by association -- almost considered to be criminals," said Mark Thompson, a Silver Lake resident who has written extensively about gay history and culture.
Bars like the Black Cat -- there were an estimated 80-plus gay bars in Los Angeles in the mid- and late 1960s -- were often the only places where gay people could meet publicly, he said.
Although some gay rights groups existed, it was not until after the New Year's raids at the Black Cat and New Faces that they staged sizable protests in Los Angeles.
"We just wouldn't put up with it," Romanoff said. "We were putting up with being raided, with going to court and people pleading to lesser charges, and then extorting fines out of us. We were getting beat up and hurt. We knew it had to stop somewhere."
The Black Cat demonstration was the first time Romanoff and many of his gay peers protested in public. They carried signs reading "No More Abuse of Our Dignity and Rights" and "Peace in Silver Lake." They handed out fliers decrying police brutality and treatment of gays, and garnered supportive honks from passing cars.
But fearful of retaliation, protesters never once uttered the name of the group that brought them together -- the newly formed Personal Rights in Defense and Education, or PRIDE. And fearful of police officers, who were watching the demonstration, Romanoff said protesters "didn't dare step off the sidewalk."
Still, Romanoff said, "there was a feeling of relief. . . . I felt for once in my life, I wasn't lying. I wasn't pretending to be something other than who I was."
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joanna.lin@latimes.com
