Georgia Black

Georgia Black ( Cantey; ca. 1892–June 1951), was an African American transgender woman who ran away from her home and lived as a woman from age 15 to her death. She was a respected member of the Sanford, Florida community, and remained so even as her status as someone assigned male at birth was leaked to the public following a medical examination.

Life Black's birth date is reported as being anywhere between 1891 and 1906, with the academic Eli Erlick claiming 1892 as "the most likely" date. Black began her gender transition at the age of 15, running away from the farm she worked at near Greeleyville, South Carolina, and living as a woman from then on. After discovering Black's male genitalia in 1950, the physician publicly revealed Georgia's information. The leak was met with backlash from the local community to Dr. Barks, as well as to the local newspaper, the Sanford Herald, for publishing a front page story about the revelation. Black remained a respected member of the Sanford community up to her death from terminal cancer in June. Snorton argues that the narrative of Georgia Black, as covered by Ebony, illustrates how black trans figures "were mobilized to meditate on intramural black life, not simply as it related to matters of gender and sexuality but also as it pertained to shifting notions of human valuation."