Tag: Willard B. Gatewood

  • This article presents various aspects of light-skinned black people “passing” for whites by examining the 1919 case of Francis Patrick Dwyer’s suit to annul his marriage to Clara McCary Dwyer after becoming suspicious that their new baby boy had Negro blood. While Dwyer was correct, he failed to win his suit, and his wife was…

  • Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite, 1880–1920 University of Arkansas Press 2000 464 pages 64 illustrations Paperback ISBN: 978-1-55728-593-5 | 1-55728-593-4 Willard B. Gatewood, Alumni Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus University of Arkansas, Fayetteville This monumental work is a classic study of the black “aristocracy” which developed in the United States in the years following…

  • Regardless of the criticism directed toward fair-complexioned Negroes who allegedly withdrew into color conscious “blue vein societies,” most black Americans fully understood why some chose to “pass,” namely to reap the benefit of first-class citizenship. Although blacks were careful to guard the secret of those who did “pass”and tended to treat such people as dead, there…