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
In everyday language, a mulatto is any person having both Caucasian and
Negro blood. But several States have defined “mulatto” specifically. The
Supreme Court of Alabama[35] held, in 1850, that a mulatto is the
offspring of a Negro and a white person, that the offspring of a white
person and a mulatto is not a mulatto; but this definition was enlarged
in 1867[36] to include anyone descended from Negro ancestors to the
third generation inclusive, though one ancestor in each generation be
white. It has been seen already that this was recently extended to the
fifth generation. The law of Missouri[37] defines a mulatto thus: “Every
person other than a Negro, any one of whose grandfathers or grandmothers
is or shall have been a Negro, although his or her other progenitors,
except those descending from the Negro, may have been white persons,
shall be deemed a mulatto, and every such person who shall have
one-fourth or more Negro blood shall in like manner be deemed a
mulatto.”
Some States have allowed facts other than physical characteristics to be
presumptive of race. Thus, it has been held in North Carolina[38] that,
if one was a slave in 1865, it is to be presumed that he was a Negro.
The fact that one usually associates with Negroes has been held in the
same State proper evidence to go to the jury tending to show that he is
a Negro.[39] If a woman’s first husband was a white man, that fact, in
Texas,[40] is admissible evidence tending to show that she is a white
woman.
One may ascertain how some of the States define the other races from
their laws against miscegenation. Thus, Mississippi, in prohibiting
intermarriage between Caucasians and Mongolians, includes one having as
much as one-eighth Mongolian blood. Oregon makes its similar law
applicable to those having one-fourth or more Chinese or Kanakan[41]
blood, or more than one-half Indian blood. Thus, three-eighths of Indian
blood would not be sufficient to bar a man from intermarriage with a
Caucasian, but one-fourth Negro, Chinese, or Kanakan blood would.
The above are the laws which define the races. The interpretation of
them is a different question. Some statutes say that one is a person of
color—in effect, a Negro—if he is descended from a Negro to the third
generation inclusive, though one ancestor in each generation may have
been white; others define as a person of color a man who has as much as
one-eighth Negro blood; and still others, one who has as much as
one-fourth Negro blood.
The following diagram will probably clarify these definitions:
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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