Interracial Marriage in "Post-Racial" America

By

Jessica Viñas-Nelson

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An inflammatory pamphlet from 1865 discussing the neologism 'miscegenation.'

What Miscegenation Is!

An inflammatory pamphlet from 1865 discussing the neologism “miscegenation” in the wake of President Abraham Lincoln’s reelection and alleging that the practice will be encouraged by his administration.

A racist 1886 advertisement for 'Sulphur Bitters.'

Sulphur Bitters

A racist 1886 advertisement for “Sulphur Bitters” that referenced the widely-known and widely-disparaged interracial marriage between the equal rights advocate Frederick Douglass and the feminist Helen Pitts in 1884. The advertisement implies Douglass sought to change his “complexion” with the product billed as “the Great Blood Purifier.”

An advertisement for Willis Smith’s 1950 senate primary campaign in North Carolina.

White People: Wake Up

An advertisement for Willis Smith’s 1950 senate primary campaign in North Carolina in which he raised fears of “race mixing” by repeatedly invoking white readers’ wives and daughters in his successful bid to defeat the state’s incumbent, Frank Porter Graham.

A racist postcard from the early 1900s suggesting that black women were sexually available.

Not Particular

A racist postcard from the early 1900s suggesting that black women were sexually available to willing white men if they could put up with the women’s “strong stench.”

Illustrator Thomas Nast reversed the typical accusations laid against Republicans with this drawing showing Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase performing a wedding ceremony for an interracial couple.

“Would You Market Your Daughter to a...”

After Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, a supporter of black suffrage, sought the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, illustrator Thomas Nast reversed the typical accusations laid against Republicans with this drawing showing Chase performing a wedding ceremony for an interracial couple surrounded by prominent Democrats.

The first print in E.W. Clay’s 1839 series of lithographs on the topic, 'Practical Amalgamation (Musical Soiree).'

“Practical Amalgamation (Musical Soiree)”

The first print in E.W. Clay’s 1839 series of lithographs on the topic, “Practical Amalgamation (Musical Soiree)” shows blacks and whites socializing and depicts the former as grotesque and unrefined. As the first in the series, Clay suggests that even chaste social interactions between blacks and whites would eventually lead to an overturning of the social order with interracial marriage as he shows in later prints.

The second in the series of E.W. Clay’s 1839 lithographs on the topic, 'Practical Amalgamation (An Amalgamation Waltz).'

“Practical Amalgamation (An Amalgamation Waltz)”

The second in the series of E.W. Clay’s 1839 lithographs on the topic, “Practical Amalgamation (An Amalgamation Waltz)” mocks the idea of interracial courting.

An 1864 anti-Lincoln administration drawing.

Behind the Scenes

An 1864 anti-Lincoln administration drawing showing Abraham Lincoln (center in blackface) and his cabinet members backstage for a production of William Shakespeare’s “Othello,” a play controversial in the U.S. for its interracial love interest.

Entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. and Swedish-born actress May Britt.

Sammy Davis Jr. and May Britt

Entertainer Sammy Davis Jr., a vocal supporter of John F. Kennedy, and Swedish-born actress May Britt delayed their marriage until after the 1960 election so as not to hurt Kennedy’s chances.

W.E.B. Du Bois.

W.E.B. Du Bois

In the wake of national hysteria over boxer Jack Johnson’s interracial marriages, W.E.B. Du Bois of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People declared: “This winter will see a determined attempt to insult and degrade us by such non-intermarriage laws. We must kill them, not because we are anxious to marry white men’s sisters, but because we are determined that white men shall let our sisters alone.”

The poster for the 2016 biopic on Richard and Mildred Loving.

Loving

The poster for the 2016 biopic on Richard and Mildred Loving.

Richard and Mildred Loving.

The Lovings

Richard and Mildred Loving, the couple behind the court case Loving v. Virginia in 1967.

A chart depicting American approval and disapproval of interracial marriage.

Approval/Disapproval of Interracial Marriage

A chart depicting American approval and disapproval of interracial marriage from 1958 to 2007.

John Gadsby Chapman’s 1840 painting depicts Pocahontas’s baptism and rechristening.

Baptism of Pocahontas

John Gadsby Chapman’s 1840 painting depicts Pocahontas’s baptism and rechristening as Rebecca before her 1614 marriage.

A 1924 Health Bulletin issued by the state of Virginia.

Racial Integrity Act

A 1924 Health Bulletin issued by the state of Virginia to warn white residents of the estimated tens of thousands of “near white people” who should be avoided as “their children are likely to revert to the distinctly negro type even when all apparent evidence of mixture has disappeared.” The state seal featuring an American Indian heads the bulletin, even though someone with more than one-sixteenth American Indian ancestry would not be permitted to marry a white person in that state.

An 1804 political cartoon referencing the widely rumored relationship between President Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings.

A Philosophic Cock

An 1804 political cartoon referencing the widely rumored relationship between President Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings. DNA evidence has demonstrated the rumor’s veracity.

This abolitionist drawing from the 1850s suggests the plight of the enslaved children of white masters.

The Beauties of the Extension of the Area of Slavery

This abolitionist drawing from the 1850s suggests the plight of the enslaved children of white masters, depicting a nearly-white slave and her mother pleading not to be sold.

Virginia Luxuries is a double-sided painting from New England c1825.

Virginia Luxuries

A double-sided painting from New England c1825, Virginia Luxuries features a bust-length portrait on one side and the above image on the reverse. The double-side nature of the painting serves two purposes: as a commentary that behind the respectable exterior of white Virginia gentlemen lies perverse desires and as a means for the owner of the painting to hide its controversial side from unreceptive viewers.

A mob burned Pennsylvania Hall in 1838.

Destruction by Fire of Pennsylvania Hall

Just days after its grand opening in 1838, a mob burned Pennsylvania Hall—a building constructed as a forum to discuss abolition and other social movements—after rumors spread that an interracial marriage had been performed there.

Part of E.W. Clay’s 1839 series of lithographs on the topic, 'Practical Amalgamation (The Wedding).'

“Practical Amalgamation (The Wedding)”

Part of E.W. Clay’s 1839 series of lithographs on the topic, “Practical Amalgamation (The Wedding)” caricatures people of African descent as buffoonish but depicts whites as having delicate and refined features. The black clergyman at center was meant to show a reversal of the racial hierarchy and the man on the far right’s resemblance to William Lloyd Garrison suggests a connection between abolitionists and amalgamation. Clay’s series as a whole encouraged the belief that blacks were physically and socially inferior to whites, yet sought interracial marriages to improve their standing.

Abolitionist and publisher William Lloyd Garrison.

William Lloyd Garrison

Abolitionist and publisher William Lloyd Garrison spoke out about the injustice of interracial marriage bans.

Abolitionist and writer David Walker.

David Walker

Abolitionist and writer David Walker called for black unity against racial injustice in 1829.

Abolitionist, writer, and women’s rights advocate Lydia Maria Child.

Lydia Maria Child

Abolitionist, writer, and women’s rights advocate Lydia Maria Child argued for the right to interracial marriage in principle, not in practice as she maintained “no abolitionist considers such a thing desirable.”

Orator and abolitionist Charles Lenox Remond.

Charles Lenox Remond

Orator and abolitionist Charles Lenox Remond considered the legality of interracial marriage the epitome of rights necessary for a free and open society and fought for the repeal of Massachusetts’s ban in 1843.

The final image of E.W. Clay’s 1839 series of lithographs on the topic, 'Practical Amalgamation (The Fruits of Amalgamation).'

“Practical Amalgamation (The Fruits of Amalgamation)”

The final image of E.W. Clay’s 1839 series of lithographs on the topic, “Practical Amalgamation (The Fruits of Amalgamation)” implies a direct line between interracial interaction and the upending of social norms and racial hierarchies.

An 1864 political cartoon depicting a ludicrous version of the results of racial equality.

Miscegenation or the Millennium of Abolitionism

An 1864 political cartoon depicting a ludicrous version of the results of racial equality as allegedly proposed by the Republican Party.

An 1864 anti-Republican satire.

The Miscegenation Ball

An 1864 anti-Republican satire using white northerners’ fears of racial mixing.

A rally against integrating Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1959.

Race Mixing Is Communism

A rally against integrating Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1959. Protestors connected school desegregation to race mixing and race mixing to both communism and “the Anti-Christ.”

A mob hung, shot, and burned William Brown in Omaha, Nebraska in 1919.

William Brown Lynching

A mob hung, shot, and burned William Brown in Omaha, Nebraska in 1919 after he was accused of raping a white woman.

Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till.

Emmett Till

Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was brutally murdered in 1955 after supposedly whistling at a white woman.

A 1921 newspaper article encouraging violence.

Tulsa Race Riot

A 1921 newspaper article encouraging violence after a black teen allegedly assaulted a white teen in an elevator in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The resulting riot leveled 35 blocks of the city’s black section and killed an estimated 39 to 300 African Americans.

A Ku Klux Klan flyer published in 1972.

Racial Purity is America’s Security

A Ku Klux Klan flyer published in 1972 promoting the idea that race mixing would threaten America’s wellbeing.

A eugenic certificate from 1924.

Eugenic Certificate

A certificate from 1924 mockingly “guaranteeing” a person’s racial “purity.”

Sheet music from 1897 mocking African Americans and Chinese Americans.

“The Wedding of the Chinee and the Coon”

Sheet music from 1897 mocking African Americans and Chinese Americans.

'The Melting Pot' analogy.

The Melting Pot

“The Melting Pot” analogy to celebrate America as a blend of nationalities first came into use with Israel Zangwill’s popular 1908 play of the same name. Conspicuously—and purposefully—absent from his melting pot were African Americans and Asian Americans who Zangwill believed should establish their own homelands elsewhere, even as he advocated for intermarriage among European nationalities.

World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Jack Johnson and Etta Terry Duryea.

Jack Johnson and Etta Terry Duryea

World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Jack Johnson and Etta Terry Duryea, the first of his three white wives, in 1910. Attempts to ban interracial marriage at the federal level swept the nation after Johnson’s second marriage to a white woman in 1912.

A 1910 cartoon referencing the race riots in more than 50 cities after Jack Johnson defeated the white boxer James Jeffries.

Not So Bad

A 1910 cartoon referencing the race riots in more than 50 cities after Jack Johnson defeated the white boxer James Jeffries in what was billed “the fight of the century” and Jeffries the “Great White Hope.” Johnson's marriage to a white woman likely fueled rioters’ anger.

A map depicting the range of years in which states repealed interracial marriage bans.

Repeal Map

A map depicting the range of years in which states repealed interracial marriage bans.

A Kentucky county clerk, Kim Davis, garnered national attention and arrest in 2015 after her refusal to issue marriage licenses.

Kim Davis Rejecting David Ermold’s Request

Unlike after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, no officials who refused to issue marriage licenses to interracial couples were arrested or removed from their positions. A Kentucky county clerk, Kim Davis, garnered national attention and arrest in 2015 after her refusal to issue marriage licenses.

Secretary of State Dean Rusk with President Lyndon Johnson in 1968.

Dean Rusk and Lyndon Johnson

Secretary of State Dean Rusk with President Lyndon Johnson in 1968, the year after he offered his resignation because his daughter, Peggy Rusk, planned to marry Guy Smith, a black graduate student.

The movie poster for the 1967 film Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

The movie poster for the 1967 film Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner.

The first film about an interracial romance was D. W. Griffith’s Broken Blossoms.

Broken Blossoms

The first film about an interracial romance, D. W. Griffith’s Broken Blossoms (1919), used a white actor to portray a Chinese man in love with an English girl. Like many films that would follow on interracial romance, it ended in tragedy.

Island in the Sun (1957) featured the first actual onscreen kiss between a black actor and a white actor.

Island in the Sun

The Motion Picture Production Code prohibited the depiction of interracial romances until 1956. Hollywood circumvented the prohibition by casting white actors for nonwhite roles so relationships would not technically be interracial. Island in the Sun (1957) featured the first actual onscreen kiss between a black actor and a white actor, to much public controversy.

A chart depicting falling American support for interracial marriage prohibitions.

Favor Law Against Interracial Marriage

A chart depicting falling American support for interracial marriage prohibitions from 1972 to 2002.

A 2013 Cheerios commercial.

Cheerios Commercial

A 2013 Cheerios commercial in which racist comments on YouTube about the interracial couple featured in the advertisement caused the company to close the comment section.

A poster for the 2017 film Get Out.

Get Out

A poster for the 2017 film Get Out—a modern-day Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner with a horror twist—has the apt tagline: “Just because you’re invited, doesn’t mean you’re welcome.”

Virginia fiberglass donkey featured George Washington, Richard and Mildred Loving, and the state's slogan.

Virginia’s Donkey

The 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania commissioned 57 fiberglass donkeys painted by local artists to represent each delegation to the convention. Virginia’s featured George Washington, Richard and Mildred Loving, and the state’s slogan since two years after the Loving ruling, “Virginia is for Lovers.”

A 2013 Loving Day celebration in New York City.

Loving Day

A 2013 Loving Day celebration in New York City (photo by Willie Davis).

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