The Story of James “Jim” McHarris, a Black Trans Man from 1954
[Photo ID begins: A color-enhanced photo of James McHarris. He is a Black trans man, with close-cropped natural hair. He is wearing a white button-down shirt, tan pants, and dress shoes. He is standing on a porch, using one hand to strike a match on the bottom of his shoe. In his other hand, he holds a cigarette. He is looking directly at the camera, which is slightly below him. Photo ID ends.]
Note: the following writeup includes discussion of anti-Black racism, misogynoir, police intimidation, transphobia, and misgendering.
In a six-page story heavily framed with advertisements for domestic goods and photographs of the article’s subject, the November 1954 issue of Ebony (a Black-owned American magazine) recounted the “unmasking” of a Kosciusko, Mississippi resident. The story began when a white police officer pulled a 30-year-old Black motorist over for “improper lights”— a common excuse white police officers use to harass and intimidate Black drivers. When he then attempted to search the man, whose driver’s license read James McHarris, he told the cop “Take it easy: I’m a woman.”
