COHABITATION WITHOUT INTERMARRIAGE
A few States have statutes relative to illicit relations between white and colored persons, where no marriage is pretended to exist. Alabama imposes for this offence upon both man and woman the same punishment as for intermarriage; a living together in adultery one day with intent to continue that relation has been held to constitute a violation of the statute.[[194]] Florida declares that, if any white person and Negro or mulatto shall live together in adultery or fornication with each other, each shall be punished by imprisonment not exceeding a year, or by a fine not exceeding a thousand dollars. The law adds that any Negro man and white woman or any white man and Negro woman, not married to each other, who habitually live in and occupy in the night-time the same room, no other person over fifteen years of age being present, shall be punished by imprisonment not exceeding twelve months, or by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars. Nevada provides that, if any white person shall live and cohabit with any black person, mulatto, Indian, or Chinese, in a state of fornication, such person so offending shall be fined not over five hundred and not less than one hundred dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail between one and six months, or both. Louisiana[[195]] has the most recent and the most thorough-going statute against miscegenation; it was adopted July 1, 1908. It provides that concubinage between a white person and a Negro is a felony, punishable by imprisonment for not less than one month nor more than one year. Concubinage is defined as unlawful cohabitation of white persons and Negroes whether open or secret. It was made the duty of the judges to specially charge the grand juries upon this statute.
The most interesting feature about these statutes is that they impose a heavier penalty for cohabitation between a white and a colored person than between two members of the same race. Yet they have been held to comply with the Constitution of the United States. The reasons why such statutes are held to be constitutional will be considered later.