The Stonewall Riots were the beginning and the defining moment for the contemporary gay and lesbian liberation movement. Although such homophile groups as Mattachine and Daughters of Bilitis existed in the 1950s and 1960s it was at Stonewall in June 1969 that actual revolt happened. But the Stonewall Riots and the Gay Liberation Front would not have happened were it not for the enormous social vitality of the times--the Black Power movement, the second wave of feminism, the youth culture, the civil rights movement, the drug culture, the hippies, yippies and rock and roll. Without them, the raid on the Stonewall Inn would have been one more petty police harassment against one more mob-owned drinking hole that imprisoned another dozen queens. The words "Gay Power" were a re-visioning of "Black Power. " The phrase "Gay Liberation" was a tribute to the already existing cultural power of "women's liberation." The energy that erupted on Christopher Street that night was prompted by the energy of rock and roll and the drug and street culture.