Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/101

 PRESENT STATE OF THE LAW AGAINST INTERMARRIAGE

The present situation as regards intermarriage is as follows: Intermarriage between the Caucasian and other races is prohibited by the Constitutions of six States, all Southern, namely: Alabama,[9] Florida,[10] Mississippi,[11] North Carolina,[12] South Carolina,[13] and Tennessee.[14] Intermarriage is prohibited by statute also in the above States and in twenty other States and Territories, namely: Alabama,[15] Arizona,[16] Arkansas,[17] California,[18] Colorado,[19] Delaware,[20] Florida,[21] Georgia,[22] Idaho,[23] Indiana,[24] Kentucky,[25] Louisiana,[26] Maryland,[27] Mississippi,[28] Missouri,[29] Nebraska,[30] Nevada,[31] North Carolina,[32] Oklahoma,[33] Oregon,[34] South Carolina,[35] Tennessee,[36] Texas,[37] Utah,[38] Virginia,[39] and West Virginia.[40]

TO WHOM THE LAWS APPLY

In the interpretation of these statutes against intermarriage, it is necessary, at the outset, to determine just who are included. If the statutes had simply enacted that there should be no intermarriage between Caucasians, on the one side, and Negroes, Indians, or Mongolians, on the other, they would have left the great body of mixed-blooded people to miscegenate as they pleased. Most of the States avoided this difficulty by stating clearly to whom the laws apply. Virginia and Louisiana are the only States simply to enact in general terms that there shall be no intermarriage between white persons and persons of color; and even in Virginia judicial decisions clearly define the term "person of color," so there is no difficulty in knowing who is meant