A group of 185 residents of Bronxville, N.Y., a wealthy community widely known as barring Negroes and Jews throughout its 75 years of existence, has established a Committee on Human Rights to fight such exclusion.
Mrs. William L. Colt, a leader of the committee, and one of its founders, has said that “if there are any Jews living here, you can’t find them.” Senator Jacob K. Javits of New York, in his book “Discrimination–U.S.A.,” said Bronxville has the reputation “of admitting only persons who profess to be Christian.”
From its beginning, it has remained mainly Anglo-Saxon, Protestant and wealthy, made up, as envisaged by its founder, William Van Duzen Lawrence, “of a class who could get along with each other.” Bronxville real estate enterprises, like Bronxville residents, deny discrimination. The standard explanation is that “Jews just haven’t cared to come here and Negroes can’t afford to.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
