Race Distinctions in American LawStephenson, Gilbert Thomas
History
Race Distinctions in American Law
Stephenson, Gilbert Thomas
African Americans -- Politics and government; Law -- United States -- History; United States -- Race relations
If race distinctions are to be recognized in the law, it is essential
that the races be clearly distinguished from one another. If a statute
provides that Negroes shall ride in separate coaches and attend separate
schools, it is necessary to decide first who are included under the term
“Negroes.” It would seem that physical indicia would be sufficient, and,
in most instances, this is true. It is never difficult to distinguish
the full-blooded Negro, Indian, or Mongolian one from the other or from
the Caucasian. But the difficulty arises in the blurring of the color
line by amalgamation. The amount of miscegenation between the Mongolian
and other races represented in the United States is negligible; but the
extent of intermixture between the Caucasian and the Negro, the Negro
and the Indian, and the Caucasian and the Indian is appreciable, and
problems arising from it are serious.
It is absolutely impossible to ascertain the number of mulattoes—that
is, persons having both Caucasian and Negro blood in their veins—in the
United States. Mr. Baker[9] says: “I saw plenty of men and women who
were unquestionably Negroes, Negroes in every physical characteristic,
black of countenance with thick lips and kinky hair, but I also met men
and women as white as I am, whose assertions that they were really
Negroes I accepted in defiance of the evidence of my own senses. I have
seen blue-eyed Negroes and golden-haired Negroes; one Negro girl I met
had an abundance of soft, straight, red hair. I have seen Negroes I
could not easily distinguish from the Jewish or French types; I once
talked with a man I took at first to be a Chinaman but who told me he
was a Negro. And I have met several people, passing everywhere for
white, who, I knew, had Negro blood.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account