Rufus L. Perry Reinstated

One hundred years ago today … Rufus L. Perry, a well known Black, Jewish lawyer based in Brooklyn, was reinstated after serving a five-year suspension for what has been called a “trumped-up-charge” (Spellen).

*New York Times*, 5 December 1922, p. 19. *Library of Congress.*

*Pensacola Journal*, 14 August 1912, p. 3. *Library of Congress.*

Perry was the son of clergyman Rufus Lewis Perry Sr. who had also been a well known figure of Brooklyn’s Black cultural life. Perry Jr. had gone to college and law school at New York University before establishing his own practice at 375 Fulton Street. His conversion to Judaism in 1914 had made news.

References/Further reading:

Spellen, Suzanne. “The Tale of a Pioneering African-American Father and Son: Rufus L. Perry Sr. and Jr.” 1 February, 2017. Brownstoner.com.

– Jonathan Goldman, Dec 4, 2022

TAGS: African American history, Jewish history, religion, law, legal