308F Summer 2025 Introducing Hannah Nokes: African-American Gender Nonconforming Resident of NOVA

For more than 70 years, Hannah Nokes lived in the Sterling/ Dranesville area where she was a trusted employee with close family ties. Assigned as male, Nokes identified and lived as female. At a time when millions of African Americans migrated from the rural South to cities for better opportunities and treatment, many gender variant individuals did the same. However, Nokes chose to remain in the same farming community, earning a living by doing laundry and opening her home to boarders and occasional travelers in need of overnight accommodations during Jim Crow segregation. In this lecture, we will explore Nokes’ life; examine perceptions others held of her, including accounts of her appearance at a high-profile murder trial; and consider evidence indicating that Nokes’ family and her community largely accepted her as a woman.

Amy Bertsch specializes in African American and Virginia history and previously worked in public history for the Office of Historic Alexandria. She has an MA in History and has taught in the Public History and Historic Preservation certificate program at Northern Virginia Community College.