TO WHOM THE LAWS APPLY
In the interpretation of these statutes against intermarriage, it is necessary, at the outset, to determine just who are included. If the statutes had simply enacted that there should be no intermarriage between Caucasians, on the one side, and Negroes, Indians, or Mongolians, on the other, they would have left the great body of mixed-blooded people to miscegenate as they pleased. Most of the States avoided this difficulty by stating clearly to whom the laws apply. Virginia and Louisiana are the only States simply to enact in general terms that there shall be no intermarriage between white persons and persons of color; and even in Virginia judicial decisions clearly define the term “person of color,” so there is no difficulty in knowing who is meant by the statute. Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, and Kentucky prohibit intermarriage between white persons and Negroes or mulattoes. Georgia, Texas, and Oklahoma place within the prohibition of their statutes persons of African descent; West Virginia, Negroes; and Florida, Negroes, expressly including every person with one-eighth or more of Negro blood. Alabama makes its law apply to Negroes and their descendants to the fifth generation, though one ancestor of each generation was white. The Indiana and Missouri statutes extend to all persons having one-eighth or more Negro blood; Maryland to Negroes or persons of Negro descent to the third generation inclusive. Tennessee includes within the prohibition Negroes, mulattoes, or persons of mixed blood descended from a Negro to the third generation inclusive. The Nebraska law applies to persons of one-fourth or more Negro blood.
The States which have a large Indian or Mongolian population include these races within the prohibition. Thus, Arizona prohibits whites to intermarry with Negroes, Mongolians, or Indians and their descendants; California, with Negroes, Mongolians, or Indians and their descendants; California, with Negroes, Mongolians, or mulattoes. It is interesting to note that the word “Mongolian” was not added to the California statute[[190]] till 1905. This addition, coming, as it does, so nearly contemporaneous with the school trouble in San Francisco, is evidence that California is facing a race problem which it considers serious. The Mississippi law applies to Negroes, mulattoes, persons who have one-eighth or more Negro blood, Mongolians or persons who have one-eighth or more Mongolian blood. Nevada includes black persons, mulattoes, Indians, Chinese; Oregon, in addition to Negroes, prohibits intermarriage with Chinese and with persons having one-fourth or more Negro, Chinese, or Kanaka blood or having more than one-half Indian blood. Utah includes simply Negroes and Mongolians; North Carolina, Negroes and Indians. South Carolina prohibits intermarriage between whites and Indians, Negroes, mulattoes, mestizoes, or half-breeds.