Lawyering in Black and White: A Book Review of According to Our Hearts, Rhinelander v. Rhinelander and the Law of the Multiracial Family

• Author: Tamara F. Lawson
• Position: Professor of Law
• Pages: 1773-1788

Lawyering in Black and White: A Book Review of According to Our Hearts, Rhinelander v. Rhinelander and the Law of the Multiracial Family Tamara F. Lawson  I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 1773 II. R HINELANDER V . R HINELANDER —A LESSON IN TRIAL ADVOCACY ................................................................................... 1776 A. T HE L AWYER ’ S R OLE ............................................................. 1776 B. T HE J URY ’ S C ONSCIENCE — IN B LACK AND W HITE ................... 1780 III. DO LAWS REALLY MATTER? THE LOVING MARRIAGE SURVIVED WHILE THE RHINELANDER MARRIAGE FAILED ............................ 1782 IV. UNANSWERED QUESTIONS: RACE, CULTURE, AND THEIR UNIQUE COMBINATIONS ........................................................................... 1784 V. CONCLUSION .............................................................................. 1788 I. INTRODUCTION According to Our Hearts 1 is an impressive work that advocates for a robust protection of the American family. Thus, in many ways, at its core, the book is very traditional and classic. 2 What makes it groundbreaking and innovative, however, is Professor Angela Onwuachi-Willig’s ability to integrate the understanding of intimate family relationships seamlessly with issues of race  Professor of Law, St. Thomas University School of Law; LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center, 2003; J.D., University of San Francisco School of Law, 1995; B.A., Claremont McKenna College, 1992. Special thanks to Professors Gary Kravitz, Wendy Greene, and Marc-Tizoc Gonzalez for their helpful feedback on my drafts, as well as to my research assistants, Kathryn E. Lecusay and Gamila Elmaadawy, for their assistance on this project. 1. See generally ANGELA ONWUACHI-WILLIG, ACCORDING TO OUR HEARTS: R HINELANDER V . R HINELANDER AND THE LAW OF THE MULTIRACIAL FAMILY (2013). 2. See Jennifer Chacón, Opening Our Hearts: A Response to Angela Onwuachi-Willig’s According to Our Hearts, 16 J. GENDER RACE & JUST. 725, 735–36 (2013). 1774 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 100:1773 and the performance of race. The narration of the historic racial fraud annulment case, Rhinelander v. Rhinelander , 3 coupled with the personal interviews with present-day multiracial families, offers the reader a fresh perspective on interraciality and opens one to the prospect that modern law should naturally include “the law of the multiracial family.” According to Our Hearts has been praised for its effective presentation, its innovations in thinking about racial-, familial-, and collective-identity injuries that stem from the intersectionality of race and family, 4 plus its ambition in addressing gaps in antidiscrimination law. 5 In my opinion, however, the book has not been sufficiently recognized for its contribution to trial advocacy, especially trial advocacy in racialized litigation. In the book, Professor Onwuachi-Willig employs the narrative style of legal storytelling that the pioneers of critical race theory have utilized. However, I think she uses this style, in a rather original way, to tell the lawyer’s story of how to manage—or mismanage—a racialized trial. The book includes a behind-the-screens and detailed retelling of the Rhinelander trial, which at first I thought was largely a tragic love story, and secondarily a tale about gender and race norms in the 1920s. But soon I realized that the book’s narrative is really about lawyering— critical race lawyering 6 —“lawyering in black and white.” The book explores not only notions of romantic love and family, but it also seriously confronts the complex and systemic legal problem of racial discrimination. Acknowledging the influences of both law and society on issues of race in America, Professor Onwuachi-Willig offers the reader a critical lens with which to think seriously about interraciality, as well as the racial identity of a family. 7 Prior to According to Our Hearts , the discussion of racial identity, largely, was recognized as an individual concept. The book broadens the dialogue and encourages an understanding of interraciality that can be applied to a collective identity—a familial identity. Professor Onwuachi-Willig further teaches the reader that because racial identity can be a collective one, cognizable legal harms can flow to individuals based on membership in the family. Consistent with the book’s expanded definitional framework of interraciality, it follows that statutes proscribing racial discrimination may, too, warrant a correspondingly more expansive scope in order to adequately protect the American family. Professor Onwuachi-Willig 3. Rhinelander v. Rhinelander, 219 N.Y.S. 548 (App. Div. 1927) (per curiam). 4. Chacón , supra note 2, at 738–39. 5. D. Wendy Greene, All in the Family: Interracial Intimacy, Racial Fictions, and the Law , 4 CALIF. L. REV. CIRCUIT 179, 185–86 (2013). 6. Scholars have acknowledged the importance of including critical race perspectives in lawyering all cases . See Symposium, Critical Race Lawyering , 73 FORDHAM L. REV. 2027 (2005). 7. ONWUACHI-WILLIG, supra note 1, at 233 (“So far in this book, I have utilized the lives of Alice and Leonard Rhinelander as a window into understanding how law and society have functioned together to frame the normative ideal of family as monoracial (and heterosexual), both historically and presently.”). 2015] LAWYERING IN BLACK AND WHITE 1775 urges legislative change as one solution, proposing that Congress amend current antidiscrimination laws to include “interraciality” as a protected category within the current statutory scheme. The book takes the reader through an enchanting love story between Leonard and Alice Rhinelander and their new marriage, while simultaneously exposing the harsh reality of Leonard’s allegation that Alice fraudulently misled him to believe that she was a white woman, when, in fact, “colored blood was coursing through her veins.” 8 Leonard’s accusations surrounding Alice’s racial identity, and his asserted lack of knowledge of it, formed the basis of his civil lawsuit seeking to annul their marriage. The book guides the reader through the details of the infamous Rhinelander lawsuit and shares the newspaper story that likely prompted the litigation and pressure from Leonard’s family to end the marriage: “Rhinelander’s Son Marries Daughter of a Colored Man.” 9 The author reveals several amazing details about the Rhinelander case, including the fact that Leonard continued to send Alice love letters urging her to “fight the lawsuit” and win the case, so that “they could remain together as husband and wife.” 10 The book discusses unique facts about the courtroom dynamics, including the description of Alice as a live physical exhibit in court. As part of the case, Alice’s lawyer, Lee Parsons Davis, had Alice expose her nude breasts and thighs to the all-male, all-white jury. Leonard had testified about the couple’s premarital sexual encounters, thus Alice’s lawyer strategically used Alice’s intimate bare skin as evidence that Leonard knew her true racial identity prior to marriage. 11 Further, the book illustrates other trial strategies employed in the litigation. Distinctively, these strategies largely relied on the lawyer’s understanding of the common racial biases of the jurors, as well as the evidentiary inferences believed to flow from one’s race, what is phenotypically perceived as one’s race, and additionally, the cultural performance of one’s racial identity. The trial itself is a tutorial in the navigation of racial prejudice in court, as well as a lesson on how the social undercurrent of racism against the multiracial family may prove to be more powerful than any laws intending to protect it. The narrative style employed by Professor Onwuachi-Willig is an extraordinarily powerful method in which to convey complex legal concepts that may otherwise remain invisible. 12 She harnesses the tools of critical race theory with incredible skill and grace, such that she brings the reader into an 8. Id. at 93 (quoting Alice Rhinelander’s attorney, Lee Parsons Davis) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also id. at 33 – 34 (quoting Leonard’s first amended complaint). 9. Id. at 31. 10. Id. at 38. 11. Id. at 112–13. Davis presented this evidence so that the jury could confirm Alice’s obvious race, based on skin color. Id. 12. See Richard Delgado, Storytelling for Oppositionists and Others: A Plea for Narrative , 87 MICH. L. REV. 2411, 2413–15 (1989). 1776 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 100:1773 intolerable quandary about intimate love and racial discrimination that is so real and heavy, it is palpable even to those who have not personally experienced it. It is an incredible accomplishment of a text, especially a legal text, to allow its reader to have an emotional experience strong enough to cause a change in thinking, understanding, and maybe even law. The book, although nonfiction, is truly captivating, and has its reader on the edge of her seat wondering: Will love prevail? What will come of Leonard and Alice? Leonard’s lawsuit against Alice ended in a jury verdict in Alice’s favor, followed by a quiet divorce months later. Leonard and Alice were never reunited. Love did not prevail. Neither ever remarried. However, their story provides many lessons of law and society that Professor Onwuachi-Willig develops throughout the book. II. R HINELANDER V . R HINELANDER —A LESSON IN TRIAL ADVOCACY A. T HE L AWYER ’ S R OLE Grounded in the substantive legal backdrop of family law, According to Our Hearts uses Rhinelander v. Rhinelander to teach the reader about civil litigation, trial advocacy, trial strategy, and legal storytelling in jury trials. 13 Additionally, it gives a vivid example of how race can be used—and, arguably, misused—in jury trials. Some scholars argue that training on multicultural lawyering should be part of the law school curriculum, 14 and this book provides...