“Beyond ‘Red-Wigged Boy-Girl’: Researching the Life of Hannah Nokes”

When George Crawford went on trial in 1933 for murdering two women in Middleburg, one witness for the prosecution was described in news reports as a “man masquerading as a woman” and a “red-wigged boy-girl.” But as Bertsch explores in the new book Queer Virginia: New Stories in the Old Dominion this witness, a Black transgender woman named Hannah Nokes, was a hard-working resident of the Dranesville community and member of Loudoun’s Nokes family. Bertsch will discuss her research into the life of Hannah Nokes and share why her story is significant today.

Bertsch is a historian specializing in African American and Northern Virginia history. She has taught in the Public History and Historic Preservation certificate program at Northern Virginia Community College, a program she also graduated from, and she previously worked in public history for the Office of Historic Alexandria which oversees the City of Alexandria’s museums, historic sites,…