Thursday, July 10, 2014

On Anti Miscegenation Laws And Jim Crow Laws

Trigger


Recently, I was curious which states had what kind of so called Jim Crow laws on their books. I consulted Wikipedia about this and found this article “List of Jim Crow law examples by State


To my great surprise, Wikipedia listed tons of miscegenation laws passed by various states (see e.g. here). One could almost get the impression that these kind of laws were the main component of Jim Crow laws.


Two Way Racial Discrimination


I would strongly argue that miscegenation laws are very different from e.g. separate but equal discrimination. Hence, I do not believe that miscegenation laws are good examples of racial discrimination or Jim Crow laws.

With these miscegenation laws white individuals were as much discriminated against as black, native or other non-white individuals. If two adults cannot marry or cohabit etc. when they love each other, then this is discrimination against both. Both are treated equal. Or in other words it affected whites as well as blacks in the same way.


Same Fate


If you look at two of the perhaps most famous cases before the U.S. Supreme Court on interracial marriage, you will find out that both spouses shared the same sentencing for their violation of state miscegenation laws (see Loving v. Virginia of 1967 and Pace v. Alabama of 1883; you got to love the name of the first case or the Loving couple versus Virginia, an irony of history).

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