Frances Thompson
Frances Thompson | |
|---|---|
 Frances wearing a dress, an 1876 illustration for The Days' Doings | |
| Born | 1840 Alabama |
| Died | 1876 (aged 35–36) |
| Known for | Memphis Riots of 1866 testimony, living as a black trans woman in the 19th century |
Frances Thompson was an American, formerly enslaved Black trans woman and anti-rape activist. She was one of the five Black women to testify before a congressional committee that investigated the Memphis Riots of 1866. She is believed to be the first trans woman to testify before the United States Congress. Thompson and a housemate, Lucy Smith, were attacked by a white mob and were among many freedwomen who were raped during the riots.[1] In 1876, Thompson was arrested for "being a man dressed in women's clothing".[2]
Early life
[edit]Thompson was born into slavery in Alabama and assigned male at birth. By the age of 26, Thompson was living as a free woman in a Black community in Memphis, Tennessee. She worked as a laundress and lived openly as a woman, keeping her face clean-shaven and wearing brightly colored dresses.[3]
Memphis Massacre of 1866
[edit]The Memphis Riots of 1866 began after a group of Black people began to gathered in a public space in South Memphis. Police attempted to disperse the group, arresting two Black soldiers, which led to gunfire and the outbreak of rioting.[4] Over the course of three days, a white mob targeted Black communities, setting fires, killing Black residents, and raping Black women.[5]
During the Riots, Thompson and Smith's house was targeted by white men who questioned their affiliation with Union soldiers.[1] Thompson later testified before a congressional committee that the men demanded they prepare food, which Thompson and Smith did. After which, the men demanded a "woman to sleep with", which Thompson refused; the men then gang-raped both Thompson and Smith and robbed them. The group of attackers included two police officers.[1][3]
Congressional testimony
[edit]Thompson was among a group of 170 people who testified before the U.S. Congress during a committee hearing to document the terror, death, rape, arson, and theft they experienced during the Memphis Riots.[6][7] In her testimony, Thompson stated that she and her housemate, Smith, did not consent.
Following the hearing, Thompson's testimony became widely known throughout the South, resulting in ten years of increased scrutiny and persecution related to her gender identity. She faced harassment and false accusations, including claims that she operated a brothel.[3]
Arrest and death
[edit]In July 1876, Thompson was fined $50 (~$1,431 in 2023) and jailed for "cross-dressing." She was subjected to multiple examinations by physicians, who deemed her "biological sex" to be male.[8][2] Southern Democrats used her arrest to discredit her testimony about being raped during the 1866 Memphis Riots. Thompson's attest fueled a broader campaign to deny and refute accounts of white racial violence against Black people in the South.[2] Thompson's identity was also weaponized to discredit other Black women's claims of rape by white men and to undermine the congressional report on the Memphis Riots, suggesting it was propaganda in favor of Reconstruction.[1]
Death
[edit]After her arrest, Thompson was sentenced to the city's chain gang, where she was forced to wear men's clothing and was abused. Following her release, she moved to North Memphis and died later that year of dysentery. Coroner's reports stated that Thompson was anatomically male, but contemporary newspaper accounts suggested some in Memphis believed her to be intersex, with Thompson reportedly describing herself as "of double sex."[9]
Legacy and impact
[edit]Frances Thompson testified before the U.S. Congress at a time when free Black women rarely had access to legal support, particularly in cases involving aggression by white men.[3][10]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Rosen, Hannah (1999). Hodes, Martha (ed.). Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History. New York and London: New York University Press. pp. 267–286. ISBN 0814735568.
- ^ a b c Rosen, Hannah (2009). Terror in the Heart of Freedom : Citizenship, Sexual Violence, and the Meaning of Race in the Postemancipation South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807888568.
- ^ a b c d Mahn, Krishna (2021-02-25). "These 5 Black women made history — and here's why you should know their stories". ideas.ted.com. Retrieved 2021-09-17.
- ^ Ash, Stephen (2013). A massacre in Memphis : the race riot that shook the nation one year after the Civil War. New York: New York : Hill & Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 100–. ISBN 978-0809067978.
- ^ Valdivia Rude, Mey (November 15, 2015). "10 Trans Women Pioneers They Definitely Didn't Tell You About In History Class".
- ^ House, United States Congress (1866). The Reports of the Committees of the House of Representatives, Made During the First Session, Thirty-ninth Congress, 1865-'66. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 1.
- ^ "A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875". memory.loc.gov. Retrieved 2021-09-17.
- ^ Spencer, Andrea (6 February 2019). "Frances Thompson, Survivor of the Memphis Massacre".
- ^ Bond, Beverly Greene; O'Donovan, Susan Eva (2020). Remembering the Memphis Massacre: An American Story. University of Georgia Press. p. 96. ISBN 9780820356495.
- ^ Berry, Daina Ramey; Gross, Kali Nicole (2021). A Black Women's History of the United States. Beacon Press, Penguin Random House. ISBN 9780807001998.
- 1876 deaths
- American freedmen
- American transgender women
- Racially motivated violence against African Americans
- Violence against trans women
- African-American LGBTQ people
- 19th-century American LGBTQ people
- Deaths from dysentery
- History of women in Tennessee
- History of Memphis, Tennessee
- LGBTQ people from Alabama
- LGBTQ people from Tennessee
- Transgender history in the United States