Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) pertaining to black people.

1928		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 4 Dec. [synd. col.] ‘Nigger’ Nate Raymond [...] runs a ‘game’ [of craps] in Los Angeles. It is located in the sepia belt.
1929		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 2 Mar. [synd. col.] It reveals [...] the Sepia Sector of New York at its best and at its worst.
1938		Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 10 Sept. 10/5: [photo caption] rug cutting was in order when the all-sepia jam session [...] was given at Randalls Island.
1940		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 6 Jan. 9/1: The social security comes into play for Cotton Club workers as the sepia palace closes [...] pending a new revue.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 38: ‘Otto Preminger?’ ‘Mud shark. Currently enthralled with a sepia seductress’.