Prior to the California Supreme Court's ruling in Perez v. While anti-miscegenation laws are often regarded as a Southern phenomenon, most states of the Western United States and the Great Plains also enacted them.Īlthough anti-miscegenation amendments were proposed in United States Congress in 1871, 1912–19, a nationwide law against mixed-race marriages was never enacted. In addition, Oklahoma in 1908 banned marriage "between a person of African descent" and "any person not of African descent" Louisiana in 1920 banned marriage between Native Americans and African Americans (and from 1920–1942, concubinage as well) and Maryland in 1935 banned marriages between Black people and Filipinos. In many states, anti-miscegenation laws also criminalized cohabitation and sex between Whites and non-Whites. All anti-miscegenation laws banned marriage between Whites and non-White groups, primarily Black people, but often also Native Americans and Asian Americans. Sometimes, the individuals attempting to marry would not be held guilty of miscegenation itself, but felony charges of adultery or fornication would be brought against them instead. Typically defining mixed-race marriages or sexual relations as a felony, these laws also prohibited the issue of marriage licenses and the solemnization of weddings between mixed-race couples and prohibited the officiating of such ceremonies. The term miscegenation was first used in 1863, during the American Civil War, by journalists to discredit the abolitionist movement by stirring up debate over the prospect of interracial marriage after the abolition of slavery.
Virginia that such laws were unconstitutional (via the 14th Amendment adopted in 1868) in the remaining 16 states.
Most states had repealed such laws by 1967, when the U.S. Some such laws predate the establishment of the United States, some dating to the later 17th or early 18th century, a century or more after the complete racialization of slavery. In the United States, anti-miscegenation laws (also known as miscegenation laws) were laws passed by most states that prohibited interracial marriage, and in some cases also prohibited interracial sexual relations.