Property Rites

The Rhinelander Trial, Passing, and the Protection of Whiteness

Elizabeth M. Smith-Pryor

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780807859391, 9780807832684
• eBook ISBN: 9780807894170
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

In 1925 Leonard Rhinelander, the youngest son of a wealthy New York society family, sued to end his marriage to Alice Jones, a former domestic servant and the daughter of a “colored” cabman. After being married only one month, Rhinelander pressed for the dissolution of his marriage on the grounds that his wife had lied to him about her racial background. The subsequent marital annulment trial became a massive public spectacle, not only in New York but across the nation — despite the fact that the state had never outlawed interracial marriage.

Elizabeth Smith-Pryor makes extensive use of trial transcripts, in addition to contemporary newspaper coverage and archival sources, to explore why Leonard Rhinelander was allowed his day in court. She moves fluidly between legal history, a day-by-day narrative of the trial itself, and analyses of the trial’s place in the culture of the 1920s North to show how notions of race, property, and the law were — and are — inextricably intertwined.

Index

Page numbers in italics indicate illustrations.

• Abortion, 10, 19, 85, 204, 210
• Adams, Cyrus Fields, 98
• African Americans: census coding of, 54;
  • changing status of, 241;
  • civil rights suits brought by, 49–50;
  • cultural vogue of, 42, 52–53, 58, 84, 163, 186, 201, 300 (n. 67), 335 (n. 4);
  • definitions of, 94–97, 105;
  • demeaning stereotypes of, 80–82, 121, 142, 181, 191, 193, 204–5, 223;
  • as domestic servants, 33, 75, 125, 134, 245;
  • as immigrants from Caribbean, 25, 42, 43, 48;
  • inheritance rights and, 169;
  • limited options for, 93, 100, 157;
  • migration to North of (see Great Migration);
  • in New York, 25, 42–46, 48, 49, 52, 100, 241;
  • “one-drop” rule and, 95, 105, 185, 186, 187, 217, 239–40, 321 (n. 4);
  • photographic images of, 191, 193;
  • physical typology and, 189–90, 203;
  • racial identification of, 56, 199, 243–45;
  • race mixing and, 1, 2, 42, 55–56, 57, 159;
  • racial line blurring and, 90, 102–3, 200;
  • as racist target, 44, 48–52;
  • Rhinelander trial verdict and, 233–34;
  • violence against, 48, 50, 51, 116, 157, 335 (n. 10);
  • women’s sexual vulnerability and, 146, 233–34. See also Passing
• Afro-American (newspaper), 236
• Agassiz, Louis, 190–91
• Alabama, 105, 199
• All God’s Chillun Got Wings (O’Neill), 163, 333 (n. 67)
• Amalgamation of America, The (Russell), 98–99
• American Civil Liberties Union, 243
• American Dilemma, The (Myrdal), 244
• American Mercury, 53, 130, 300 (n. 67)
• American Museum of Natural History, 46
• “American Negro” (Herskovits), 189
• American Race Problem, The (Reuter), 100
• Amsterdam News, 7–8, 105, 157, 160, 164–65, 233–34;
  • on Rhinelander marriage, 131, 13...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Property Rites
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• ONE: Curious Acts
• TWO: “All Mixed Up” in New York
• THREE: The Trial Begins
• FOUR: Passing and the “Seemingly Absurd Question” of Race
• FIVE: Defending the Citadel of Whiteness from the “Awful Stain”
• SIX: The Trial Continues
• SEVEN: “Poor Little Cupid” and the Marriage Contract
• EIGHT: Blind Love and the Visibility of Race
• NINE: The Trial Ends
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index