Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/36

 *cluded in that class.[23] Ohio limited the suffrage to white male citizens and made it the duty of judges of election to challenge any one with a "distinct and visible admixture of African blood," but the latter requirement was held unconstitutional in 1867,[24] the court saying that, where the white blood in a person predominated, he was to be considered white. This definition is interesting because it is the only instance found of a court's saying that a person with more than half white blood and the rest Negro should be considered white. In contrast with this is the following sweeping definition laid down in the Tennessee statute: "All Negroes, Mulattoes, Mestizoes,[25] and their descendants, having any African blood in their veins, shall be known in this State as 'Persons of Color.'"[26] Arkansas also, in its statute separating the races in trains, includes among persons of color all who have "a visible and distinct admixture of African blood."[27]

In everyday language, a mulatto is any person having both Caucasian and Negro blood. But several States have defined "mulatto" specifically. The Supreme Court of Alabama[28] held, in 1850, that a mulatto is the offspring of a Negro and a white person, that the offspring of a white person and a mulatto is not a mulatto; but this definition was enlarged in 1867[29] to include anyone descended from Negro ancestors to the third generation inclusive, though one ancestor in each generation be white. It has been seen already that this was recently extended to the fifth generation. The law of Missouri[30] defines a mulatto thus: "Every person other than a Negro, any one of whose grandfathers or grandmothers is or shall have been a Negro, although his or her other progenitors, except