"She's the mother of us all": Sweet Evening Breeze and the Queer Community of Lexington, Kentucky

Sweet Evening Breeze (1895-1983), born James Herndon, was a well-known LGBTQ figure in Lexington, Kentucky, whose gender identity defied categorization at the time. While she wore men's clothing and answered to her birth name at work and church, she was Sweet Evening Breeze in her personal time, during which she dressed as a woman. As a Black individual living through the Jim Crow era, she achieved a rare level of visibility and influence, becoming a fixture in the city's social and politi...