Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US, mainly Southern black) a tailcoat; thus jimswing, v.

1891		Anderson Intelligencer (Anderson Court Hse, SC) 11 June 3/4: We had the pleasure of meeting one of our ‘jim-swinger boys’ [...] He looks much better than he used to, resembling a ‘half-grown-city-dude’.
1893		Edgefield Advertiser (SC) 21 Dec. 2/2: Josh Ashley [...] went for him but some of the members grabbed the tails of his jimswinger and held him in leash.
1895		DN I 389: Jim-swinger: long-tailed coat, especially a ‘Prince Albert’ .
1902		J.D. Corrothers Black Cat Club 30: He still wore the conventional ministerial garb — plug hat, Prince Albert coat or ‘Jim Swinger’.
1903		Appeal (St Paul, MN) 26 Dec. 1/1: His every day dress consisted of the regulation ministerial garb: top hat, frock, or as he termed it ‘Jim Swigger’ coat, black trousers and white choker.
1908		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:iv 325: jim-swinger, n. A long-tailed coat [...] Also jim-swigger.
1910		N.Y. Tribune 31 Dec. 6/4: No guest will be admitted to that fuunction who cannot produce ‘a coat with long tails which flap out behind the wind.’ Officially known as ‘the jim-swinger’.
1911		Salt Lake Tribune (UT) 8 Jan. 6/5: Governor-elect Cruce [...] insists on wearing what he calls a ‘jimswigger’ coat [...] We certainly don’t know about know about the looks of the thing, but it certainly doesn’t sound much worse than ‘clawhammer’ or ‘swallowtail’.
1912		H. Crumpton Adventures of Two Alabama Boys 78: I was a tall, slim, awkward lad, about eighteen years old, thin as a match, pale as a ghost and had on a long Jim Swinger .
1918		Clinch Valley News (Jeffersonville, VA) 9 Aug. 1/2: A spinkling of older men, among these last was Mr. J.A. Greever in a Jim-swinger Confederate coat.
1921		Mohave Co. Miner (Kingman, AZ) 28 Jan. 3/1: So I took ff my long jimswinger coat and my vest, and stood up for battle.
1952		L. Hughes Laughing to Keep from Crying 199: His green-black coat jim-swinging to his knees.

2. used as derog.

1897

Edgefield Advertiser (SC) 21 Dec. 3/3: We had good men in office and threw them out for jim-swingers and coat-tail-swingers.