The Rhinelander Affair
The controversial 1925 divorce trial that ended in public nudity
From Romeo and Juliette to Heathcliff and Cathy, everyone enjoys a forbidden love story. When Leonard Rhinelander, 22, fell in love with Alice Jones, 18, in 1921, he probably knew his influential and aristocratic family would never approve. Alice worked as a maid and came from a blue-collar family. Leonard was your typical playboy, trust fund baby. But it wasn’t just socioeconomic class that the two love birds had to overcome.
Alice Jones was of mixed race.
Undeterred by society’s obstacles, Alice and Leonard eloped in October 1924. They tried to keep their marriage a secret, even paying reporters to keep it out of the paper. Unfortunately, they failed. The Rhinelander family soon discovered that Leonard’s new bride was a quadroon — one-quarter black. The family then swooped in Capulet style to dissolve the marriage.
Unfortunately, Leonard was no Romeo willing to fight for his lady love. Fearing disinheritance, Leonard sued Alice for an annulment on the grounds that she had hidden her “Negro blood.”
In the following weeks, the trial unraveled with all the vacillation of a Hamlet-like soliloquy — was Alice black or white? And if she was black, had Leonard known Alice had quadroon blood? To bolster…
