Frances Thompson was black, transgender woman. She was a former slave and an anti-rape activist who was one of the five black women who testified before a congressional committee that investigated the Memphis Riots of 1866. She is believed to be the first trans woman to testify before congress. Thompson and a housemate, Lucy Smith, were attacked by a mob of white terrorists and were among many freedwomen who were raped during the riots. In 1876, Thompson was arrested for "being a man dressed in women's clothing".
Memphis Riots of 1866
Memphis Riots of 1866 began after a group of black soldiers, women, and children began to gather in a public space in South Memphis. After the police attempted to break up the group, arresting two soldiers, gunshots broke out which subsequently led to rioting. For three days, white men targeted communities of black residents, starting fires, killing black people and raping black women. During these attacks, Thompson's and Smith's house was targeted by white terrorists who questioned their affiliation with union soldiers. Thompson would later testify during the congressional committee that the men demanded that they make them food, and they obliged. After which, the men demanded a "woman to sleep with", which Thompson refused; the men raped both Thompson and Smith.
Death
After being arrested for cross-dressing and sentenced to the city's chain gang, being forced to wear men's clothes and abused while serving time, Thompson moved to North Memphis after she was released. She was found seriously ill and moved to a hospital where she died of dysentery. Coroner's reports say that Thompson was anatomically male although there are reports that she could have been intersex. She identified as a woman.
In July of 1876, Frances Thompson was fined $50 for cross-dressing. It was confirmed by 4 physicians that her biological sex was male. After Frances Thompson was arrested for being a "man dressed in women's clothing", conservatives used the arrest as ammunition to discredit her story of being raped during the Riots 10 years prior. This fueled an even larger campaign to refute white brutality against blacks in the south. The discovery of Thompson's identity was also used to discredit black women's claims of rape by white men, and suggested that the entire congressional report that Thompson had testified in was only manufactured propaganda in support of Reconstruction.
