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African Americans

2016

University at Albany, State University of New York

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Seeing Color In Black And White : New York Defines Its Color Line In Ridgway V. Cockburn In 1937, Nicholas A. Soares Jan 2016

Seeing Color In Black And White : New York Defines Its Color Line In Ridgway V. Cockburn In 1937, Nicholas A. Soares

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This thesis examines the role Ridgway v. Cockburn played in exposing the “Negro race” as a subjective experience rather than a definitive label. Blacks in the 20th century were seen as undesirable. The NAACP fought for blacks’s rights to property and justice in the courts. Racially restrictive covenants became a popular method used by whites to keep blacks out of their neighborhoods. Arthur Garfield Hays, a white lawyer, defended the Cockburns as they moved into Edgemont Hills, a white elite neighborhood.