PUNISHMENT FOR INTERMARRIAGE
Persons of different races who attempt to intermarry in violation of the laws subject themselves everywhere to severe penalties. In Alabama, the law says they shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary for not less than two, nor more than seven years. In Colorado, they are guilty of a misdemeanor and punishable by a fine of from fifty dollars to five hundred dollars, or imprisonment for not less than three months nor more than two years, or both. In Delaware, they are guilty of a misdemeanor and may be fined one hundred dollars. Florida says they shall be imprisoned in the State penitentiary not exceeding ten years or fined not exceeding one thousand dollars. In Indiana, if they knowingly violate the law—that is, if the white person knows the other is a Negro or of mixed blood—they are fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars, or imprisoned in the State prison not less than one nor more than ten years. Maryland declares that they are guilty of an infamous crime, punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than eighteen months nor more than ten years. Mississippi makes the punishment a fine of five hundred dollars, imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or both. The law of Missouri declares that one who knowingly intermarries in violation of the statute shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary two years or by a fine not less than one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not less than three months, or by both such fine and imprisonment, and adds that the jury shall determine the amount of Negro blood by appearance. Nevada enacts that the parties are guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be imprisoned in the State prison not less than one nor more than two years. North Carolina brands an attempted intermarriage as an infamous crime to be punished by imprisonment in the county jail or State prison not less than four months nor more than ten years, and the parties may also be fined at the discretion of the court. Oklahoma makes it a felony and provides that the parties shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars or imprisonment not less than thirty days nor more than one year, or both. Oregon simply makes it an offence punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary or county jail between three months and one year. South Carolina[[192]] declares attempted intermarriage is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than five hundred dollars or imprisonment in the penitentiary from one to five years. Texas, by a law of 1858, still in force in 1879, prescribed a punishment for the white person who attempted to marry a Negro but no punishment for the Negro. A Federal court[[193]] held that the difference of punishment was in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, but that the law against intermarriage was constitutional. Virginia provides that the parties shall be confined in the penitentiary not less than two nor more than five years. West Virginia would confine them in jail not over one year and fine them not exceeding one hundred dollars. Thus, it appears that in most of the States intermarriage is considered a very serious offence, ranking in Colorado, Delaware, Nevada, and South Carolina, as a misdemeanor; in Louisiana and North Carolina as an infamous crime; and in Tennessee and Oklahoma as a felony.