Lucy Hicks Anderson

Lucy Hicks Anderson
Born Tobias Lawson
1886
Waddy, Kentucky
Died 1954 (approximately 68 years old)
Los Angeles, California
Nationality American
Occupation Socialite, Chef, Hostess
Spouse(s)

Clarence Hicks (1920-1929)

Reuben Anderson (1944-1954)

Lucy Hicks Anderson was a socialite and chef, best known for her time spent in Oxnard, California from 1920 to 1946.[1][2] According to the Handbook of LGBT Elders, Anderson is "one of the earliest documented cases of an African-American transgender person".[3] In 1945 she was arrested and tried for perjury, under the justification that she had lied about her sex on her marriage license and was impersonating a woman.[4]

Early life

Lucy Hicks Anderson was born Tobias Lawson in Waddy, Kentucky, in 1886. From a very early age Anderson was adamant that she was not male, identifying as female in a time period before the term transgender existed.[5] After going to doctors and being told to just let Lucy live as a young woman, Lucy’s parents decided to side with physicians, and she began wearing dresses to school and being known as Lucy.[1]

Later life

At the age of 15, Lucy left school and did domestic work as a means to support herself and at the age of 20, she headed west and married her first husband, Clarence Hick, and settled in Oxnard, California at the age of 34. Lucy’s marriage to Clarence lasted only nine years, but during the course of this union, Lucy managed to do well for herself, saving up to buy property that was a boarding house front for a brothel, that sold illegal liquor in prohibition America. Outside of her time as a Madame, she was a well-known socialite and hostess in Oxnard, and would later use her connections to avoid serious jail time. According to scholar C. Riley Snorton, “When the sheriff arrested her one night, her double-barreled reputation paid off—Charles Donlon, the town’s leading banker, promptly bailed her out. Reason: he had scheduled a huge dinner party which would have collapsed dismally with Lucy in jail.”[6] In 1944, Hicks remarried Rueben Anderson, a soldier stationed in Long Island, New York.

Marriage Scandal and Convictions

When it was discovered in 1945 that she had been born anatomically male, she was tried for perjury on the basis that she lied about her sex on her marriage licence and impersonated a woman. After a trial, she was found guilty of the impersonation charges and perjury on her marriage licence because, at the time, marriage was only valid between a man and a woman, and she was not a woman. The marriage was declared null and void. However, she was quoted with saying, “I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman,” and “I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman.” Despite repeatedly declaring her own womanhood, she was found guilty in the Ventura Country Court, but instead of jail time, she was sentenced to 10 years of probation. She was later tried by the federal government of defrauding the government of money (via the financial allotments wives get under the GI Bill), in addition to her first and second husband. In this trial, they were all found guilty and sentenced to prison time, where Lucy was forbidden to wear women’s clothes.[3]

Death

After being released from prison, she and Reuben relocated to Los Angeles, where they resided quietly until her death in 1954.[6]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Hannah,, Jewell,. She caused a riot : 100 unknown women who built cities, sparked revolutions, & massively crushed it. Naperville, Illinois. ISBN 9781492662921. OCLC 1008768117.
  2. ↑ Lewis, Taylor. "Learn the Inspiring True Story of Black Trans Pioneer Lucy Hicks Anderson". Essence.com. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  3. 1 2 Harley, Debra A.; Teaster, Pamela B. (2015-08-05). Handbook of LGBT Elders: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Principles, Practices, and Policies. Springer. p. 109. ISBN 9783319036236.
  4. ↑ M.D, Eric Yarbrough (2018-03-08). Transgender Mental Health. American Psychiatric Pub. p. 33. ISBN 9781615371136.
  5. ↑ Leonard, Kevin. "Anderson, Lucy Hicks [Tobias Lawson] (1886-1954)". The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  6. 1 2 Riley,, Snorton, C. Black on both sides : a racial history of trans identity. Minneapolis. ISBN 9781452955865. OCLC 1008757426.


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