Oscar Micheaux -- Newest File Like Rhinelander Case -- January 28, 2025

Baltimore Afro-American, 24-January-1925

Oscar Micheaux was a pioneer in producing what were known as race films. This ad says that Baltimore's Regent Theater will show his The House Behind the Cedars, which was based on a novel by Charles W Chestnutt. The House Behind the Cedars deals with issues of passing and miscegenation. Micheaux remade it as a talkie under the title The Veiled Aristocrats.

The article mentions that the story shares some points with the contemporary case of Leonard Rhinelander v Alice Rhinelander. Leonard Rhinelander, who was a member of a wealthy family, and Alice Jones, who came from working-class roots, fell in love. Despite the opposition of both families, they married as soon as they were old enough. They tried to keep the marriage secret, but reporters, interested by the angle of class differences, dug into Alice's background. They found that her father was of mixed race. Leonard, faced with disinheritance, tried to have the marriage dissolved because he said he did not know that Alice was of mixed race. Alice eventually won a settlement which included a lifetime monthly stipend.

Baltimore Afro-American, 31-January-1925

Sadly, the show did not go on because Micheaux's people did not get advertising materials to the theater in time.