Black transgender woman Hannah Nokes captured headlines in 1930s

As Amy Bertsch read about a historic Virginia trial accusing a Black man of double-murder, it wasn’t the highly documented all-Black defense that caught her attention — it was the Black transgender woman who testified.

Her name was Hannah Nokes. She was born in 1898.

“Her father was a member of the Nokes family, and they were very well known in the Sterling community,” Bertsch, an Alexandria historian, said.

Nokes, who began identifying as a woman well before her 30s, was a domestic worker for several families, took in laundry and rented out rooms in her home for travelers.

In 1933, Nokes was called to the stand in Loudoun County’s historic courthouse. Nokes, a witness for the prosecution, had recently hosted the accused murderer, a Black man named George Crawford, in her boarding house.

Crawford’s all-Black defense team, including famed civil rights attorney Charles Houston, drew in reporters from across the country. The defense team came to challenge the racial bias of the case’s all-white jury.

But when Nokes took the stand, she also stole the show.

“It mentioned there was one witness who appeared as a woman and caused kind of a commotion in the courtroom,” Bertsch said, referencing her readings on the case.

Bertsch dug deeper, first at Leesburg’s Thomas Balch Library, then at the Library of Congress.

Article after article, her research uncovered more headlines focused on Nokes. Many were derogatory.

“The Afro American in particular did multiple stories in which they focused heavily on her gender identity,” Bertsch said. “Sometime mocking her, making fun of her appearance.”

“Red-wigged boy-girl,” “a girl-friend fairy” and “masquerading as a woman” read some of the headlines.

During the trial, a telling moment came when Nokes’ nephew took to the witness stand and was challenged on her gender identity.

“[Houston] asked the nephew whether Nokes was his aunt or his uncle, and this young man said ‘aunt.’ And Charles Houston asked the question again, and this young man confirmed, yes, it was his aunt,” Bertsch said.

Bertsch says it was a clear sign that Nokes’ identity was accepted in her community.

Shortly after the trial, Nokes was featured in a Rural Electrification Administration magazine. She’d just been connected to electricity, which provided a big boost to her laundry business. The feature also included the only known photograph of Nokes.

“She’s presented as a woman, completely female, no question about pronouns or her gender identity,” Bertsch said. “So, her visibility at that time as a transgender woman is remarkable.”

Nokes’ story, written by Bertsch, is now part of a book titled “Queer Virginia” by Charles H. Ford and Jeffrey L. Littlejohn.

Nokes’ story, Bertsch says, holds a resonating message.

“I hope that’s something that shows folks today this is not a new thing, that people can be accepted for who they are,” she said.

When Hannah died in 1972, Bertsch says, her family had a final worry — how would she be clothed in her casket.

They were relieved to learn she was buried in a beautiful blue dress.