Georgia Black (?1892- 1951) housewife.

George Cantey ran away from grueling field work in 1921 1907and went to Charleston, South Carolina. Cantey was taken on as a servant by a gay man who encourage dressing as female, and coached mannerisms.

This suited Georgia, and she continued as Georgia after he dumped her. In Winter Gardens. Florida, she met Alonzo Sabbe, who was seriously ill. She nursed him back to health. He then asked her to marry him, which they did  in January 1912. A cousin of Sabbe abandoned her three-year-old child, and Alonzo and Georgia adopted him.  Alonzo was killed in 1917.  

In 1918 Georgia Sabbe married Muster Black in Sanford, Florida. Muster died seven years later but left Georgia his Veterans pension.

Georgia was outed only on her her own death bed when her doctor examined her more closely. The Police Chief, taking her to have been masquerading, did a background check on her, but found nothing. Many people in Sanford refused to believe that Georgia was not a woman, and the others criticized the doctor for his lack of discretion, and the local paper for running the story on the front page. Her son, who grew up to be steelworker in Pennsylvania, was as surprised as anyone.

The funeral cortege of both black and white mourners consisted of more than 30 cars. Georgia was buried in woman’s clothes, and the death certificate had no stipulation of sex.

• "Twice-Married 'maid' discovered to be man: Draws Widow's Pension".  The Atlanta Journal, 7 Mar 1951.
• "Man poses as woman for more than forty years".  The St Augustine Record, 8 Mar 1951.
• Maid, widowed twice, turns out to be man".  Norfolk Virginia New Journal and Guide, 10 Mar 1951.
• “The Man who Lived 30 years as a Woman”. “Townsfolk Wonder About Married Life”. Ebony. Oct 1951. Reprinted Ebony, Nov 1975.
• Willie Sabb. "My mother was a man". Ebony, June 1953. 
• “The Man who Lived 30 years as a Woman”. Jet, Feb 20 1989. 
• C Riley Snorton. " 'Black People Die Differently': Georgia Black and Value’s Sleight of Hand" in Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity. University of Minnesota Press, 2017: 151-7.

EN.Wikipedia

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A pioneer who is largely forgotten.   Quite a lot of our pioneers in the US were black, which is another fact that is often overlooked.

Georgia is second from the left on the front row in the group photograph.