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INTERMARRIAGE AND MISCEGENATION

One race distinction, which has not been confined to the South, and which has, in a large measure, escaped the adverse criticism heaped upon other race distinctions is the prohibition of miscegenation between the Caucasian and the colored races. The term "miscegenation" includes both intermarriage and all forms of illicit intercourse between the races. Twenty-six States and Territories, including all the Southern States, have laws forbidding the admixture of the races; applying not only to Negroes, but also to Indians and Mongolians in States where the latter races are present in considerable numbers.

INTERMARRIAGE DURING RECONSTRUCTION

It is significant that during the years of Reconstruction in the South, when the Federal and State governments were endeavoring to eradicate race distinctions, none of the statutes against miscegenation appear to have been repealed. There is some meager authority—a case which arose in Tennessee[1] in 1872, and two cases in North Carolina[2] in 1877—which might tend to show that the statutes of two Southern States were repealed. The Tennessee court was of opinion that intermarriage was not prohibited in Mis