Josh Aiken

Josh Aiken is currently a JD and PhD student in African-American Studies and History at Yale. He is the former Policy Fellow at the Prison Policy Initiative and Researcher-in-Residence at Artspace New Haven. Aiken received an MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies and MSt in American History from the University of Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and graduated summa cum laude with his BA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Posts by Josh Aiken

The Climate of Cook Avenue

In 1912, White residents faced “a negro invasion”: three Black families had purchased homes on the 4000 block of Cook Avenue, including the Hudlin family that May. The action of this Black family moving into “White space” would prompt armed self-defense, police intervention, and changes to the law. The system of de facto segregation that protected property values and racial hierarchies was being legally transgressed.