Interracial Marriage Laws
Interracial marriage laws, historically referred to as antimiscegenation laws, were legal restrictions that prohibited marriages between individuals of different races, particularly targeting unions between whites and African Americans. These laws emerged in the Americas during the colonial era and were influenced by the institution of slavery. By the mid-20th century, they were prevalent in many states, particularly in the South and West, where around thirty states enforced such regulations. The laws sought to maintain what proponents claimed was "racial integrity," often rooted in the notion of white supremacy. Legal challenges began as early as the 1870s, but widespread opposition grew significantly by the 1960s, emphasizing that these laws violated constitutional rights to equal protection and due process.
The landmark Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia in 1967 ultimately invalidated all remaining antimiscegenation laws, affirming that they served no legitimate government purpose and were primarily tools for promoting racial discrimination. Following this decision, interracial marriage became legal across the United States, leading to a gradual increase in such unions. Although the rate of interracial marriages remains lower than same-race marriages, the legal landscape has shifted significantly since the mid-20th century, reflecting broader changes in societal attitudes toward race and marriage.
Interracial Marriage Laws
Laws prohibiting marriages between people of different races or ethnicities. These laws, some of which predated the Revolutionary War, were particularly common in southern and western states. They were declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967.
Origins and History
Interracial marriage laws, also known as antimiscegenation laws, appeared in the Americas soon after Europeans established colonies there. These laws, partly a product of the practice of slavery, prohibited people of different races from marrying. Most of the laws focused on marriages between whites and African Americans, but many also prohibited marriages between whites and Asians, Native Americans, or other nonwhites. Although interracial marriage laws had faced legal challenges as early as the 1870’s, they remained widespread until the mid-twentieth century. In fact, they became especially popular in the 1920’s.
The wide support that antimiscegenation laws once had is demonstrated by the number of states that passed such laws. In the 1940’s, thirty states, mostly in the South and West, had laws prohibiting interracial marriages. The goals of these laws can be inferred from their structure and language: Although whites were prohibited from marrying nonwhites, nonwhites were permitted to marry other nonwhites, regardless of race. Virginia’s law, which was eventually challenged before the U.S. Supreme Court, was entitled, “An Act to Preserve Racial Integrity.” Proponents of antimiscegenation laws unabashedly stated that the legislation was meant to ensure the “purity” of the white race. Interracial marriages, it was argued, would result in the mongrelization or extinction of the white race. Advocates of interracial marriage laws also argued that they satisfied the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause because they applied equally to all races; that is, both whites and nonwhites would be punished equally for violating the laws. Furthermore, proponents contended, the framers of the Constitution clearly did not intend it to prohibit this kind of legislation.
By the 1960’s, antimiscegenation laws faced increasing opposition. Opponents of antimiscegenation laws asserted that they were unconstitutional. They argued that these laws violated the equal protection clause by creating race-based distinctions, conflicted with Americans’ due process rights to marry freely, and interfered with religious freedoms. Furthermore, critics said that the laws were an attempt to promote the ideals of white supremacy. Interracial marriage laws were also criticized because they required the government to determine who was white and who was not. By the 1960’s, many anthropologists, biologists, and other scientists had determined that the concept of race is artificial and scientifically meaningless.
Some lower courts had declared interracial marriage laws unconstitutional as early as 1947. Before the Supreme Court’s ruling in 1967, fourteen states had repealed their laws. However, the issue was not decided definitively until the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of Loving v. Virginia in 1967. In that case, Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, an African American woman, had been convicted in 1958 of violating Virginia’s laws against interracial marriage. In 1963, a Virginia court held that the antimiscegenation law was constitutional, but four years later, the Supreme Court unanimously held that the laws served no legitimate government purpose, that they were merely a vehicle to promote white supremacy, and that they violated the equal protection and due process clauses.
Impact
The Supreme Court’s opinion invalidated all remaining interracial marriage laws. Furthermore, because the Court made it clear that it would be highly skeptical of any race-based legislation, the opinion in this case spurred many states to repeal other laws that categorized people on the basis of race. Thus, the end of antimiscegenation laws was also a significant step forward in the Civil Rights movement.
Subsequent Events
Since 1967, interracial marriages have remained legal in all states. The rate of interracial marriages in the United States, while still relatively small, has increased since the 1960’s.
Additional Information
Walter Wadlington’s “The Loving Case: Virginia’s Anti-Miscegenation Statute in Historical Perspective,” in the Virginia Law Review (issue 52, 1966) is an excellent article on the history of antimiscegenation laws. For a more modern perspective, see Peggy Pascoe’s “Miscegenation Law, Court Cases, and Ideologies of ’Race’ in Twentieth-Century America,” in the June, 1996, issue of the Journal of American History.