Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/112

 EFFECT GIVEN TO MARRIAGES IN OTHER STATES

The next question is the interpretation of the laws against intermarriage. What effect will a State that prohibits miscegenation give to a marriage between a white person and Negro in a State that permits intermarriage? What effect, for instance, will Virginia give to a marriage of a white woman to a Negro man contracted in Massachusetts if the parties go to Virginia to live? If the Negro and white woman were residents in good faith of Massachusetts or of some State that permits intermarriage at the time of their marriage, their marriage will, as a general rule, be recognized as valid everywhere—even in the Southern States. Several States, including Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, and probably others, in their statutes prohibiting intermarriage make the provision that, if the marriage is valid where consummated, it will be considered valid by those States. A Tennessee[55] court in 1872 did refuse to recognize as valid a marriage celebrated in Mississippi when intermarriage was permitted in Mississippi, but this appears to be the only case taking that view.

If, on the other hand, the parties leave a State which prohibits intermarriage and go to another State which allows it, solely for the purpose of evading the laws of the former State, the authority is practically unanimous that the marriage is not valid in the State the laws of which they attempted to evade. This point is covered both by statute and by judicial decision. A Delaware statute, for instance, declares that the Negro and white person are equally guilty if they are married in another State and