Josephine had a rather typical story of a Black trans woman in 1900s Chicago. She was outed, arrested, and faced a steep fine. Compare her story to white trans women of her era, like Maude Milbourne, who was warned but not punished for her dresses. Interestingly, Josephine sparked a minor moral panic over trans women (see below).
The pages in Before Gender were too small to include the full St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Jul 4, 1909) article on Josephine. The detailed illustrations help tie her story together. See the high-quality image here.
A trans panic in 1909? This article responds to Josephine’s outing and jokingly claims her gender status puts all women under suspicion (The Inter Ocean, Jun 10, 1909).
