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Chapter Five

MIXED MARRIAGES AS SEEN BY THE CLERGY AND THE LAITY

“A weak mind is like a microscope which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.” Lord Chesterfield.

WENDELL PHILIPS: “Amalgamation! Remember this, the youngest of you: that on the 4th day of July, 1863, you heard a man say that in all the light of history, in virtue of every page he has read that he was an amalgamationist to the utmost extent. (Applause.) I have no hope for the future as this country has no past and Europe has no past, but in that sublime mingling of races which is God’s own method of civilizing and elevating the world. (Loud Applause.)”¹

The World (New York) registered its disapproval of Eugene O’Neill’s play, “All God’s Chillun Got Wings,” in which a Negro marries a white woman, and urged the Board of Aldermen to stop it, holding that:

“An act which is illegal in more than half the nation and is disapproved in the entire country is to be represented in a manner indicating approval in a public theatre.”²

Ruth S. Keen (letter of rebuttal to Arthur Brisbane) : “Many white men are bullies and braggarts, but there is one group over which they have no control—their white women.

“From the beginning of time, at first stealthily and subtly but now quite openly and shamelessly, white women have always had what they wanted (you see, we share our lord’s rapaciousness) and they have always given themselves to men whom they admired and preferred quite regardless of class, creed, race, color or previous condition of servitude.

“So—Mr. Brisbane, I have the honor to inform you that, if white girls admire and prefer men of other races, neither bluster, bragging nor bombs will stop them from doing so for they not only trust their own convictions in such matters but have the courage to carry them out.”³

Letter of an educated white woman to a Negro writer. “… When the better class of white women get freed from this color psychosis you (black men) are going to be the kings of the earth. We will try to make up to you for some of the things you haven’t had. I take a great delight in performing the most menial tasks for all my dark men friends. It sort of evens things up … and I am quite open and shameless. Being in the fatal forties my gestures are not misunderstood and I have a warm maternal feeling for the boys and girls which they respond to easily as they know it to be sincere.”⁴

Albert Stowe Leecraft of Houston, Texas, on the mulatto: “In animal life crossing of breeds produces what is called “a Mule …”

“A Mule-Nigger is the aftermath or fruitage of the clandestine visits of a low-down, depraved, degenerate white scallawag who by day lives in the midst of social refinement in the white communities of this Christian world and frequents the colored settlements under the cover of darkness of the night and plants his seed of iniquity secretly, with only the eyes of the recording angel watching his footsteps, and those human skunks well know the inevitable birth of their progenies brings disgrace to decent humanity.

“A child brought into life through such a union of mixed bloods of ‘strange flesh’ is neither a white child or a Nigger; he is not white and he is not black, and the offspring of social error does not inherit the spiritual blessing of God or the fellowship of man … He is a social outcast of society, a living monument in the walks of life, visualizing the abortion of the plans of God Almighty and picturing the perfidy of immoral humanity …

“The laws of nature do not permit the cross-breeding of foreign seeds of life … A coating of tar will not make an ink-spot white, and a million years of evolution will never bring forth a clean, pure, spotless-skin white child after the ancestral blood has been polluted with blood of Negroid taint …

“The big, burly, flat-footed, thick-lipped, spread-nose, black-skin, kinky-haired ‘Nigger’ of this age are all of the blood of Cain, the man God made black.”⁵

Father Gillis, Catholic priest of New York: “There are those who maintain that as much as one-third of the whole population of the United States has some strain of colored blood. Be that statement accurate or exaggerated the unquestionable fact remains that however much man, both white man and black man, may revolt from miscegenation, Nature does not abhor the union of the races. If Nature does not, God does not for the laws of Nature are the laws of God. And the Church takes her cue from the laws of God rather than from the feelings and prejudices of man. The Church will baptize a mulatto, ordain him a priest, or consecrate him bishop. She has done so here in the United States. She does not consider the offspring of a Negro and a white a monster.

“Enough! man is man, be he black or white.”⁶

Dr. J. H. Oldham, English writer: “Those who hold with Dr. Stoddard that ‘it is clean, virile, genius-bearing blood streaming down through the unerring action of heredity’ that is going to ‘solve our problem and sweep us on to higher and nobler destinies’ ought, if they are consistent, to welcome such blood wherever they find it. But if they refuse to do this and instead of keeping to the question of strains, which exhibit the highest mental and moral qualities begin to talk of ‘race which includes bad as well as good strains, the bottom falls out of their argument. The argument from heredity, whatever may be its force, is concerned with particular strains or lines of descent and warrants no conclusion in regard to races as a whole.’ ”⁷

Putnam Weale, English writer: “Where the white man has not absolutely cleared the ground of his colored rival he may be bred down to a position of inferiority … The whites of the Southern States when they do everything they can to prevent all mixing of blood are simply obeying natural laws, which if they had ignored, would quickly lead, to their own undoing. In the Southern States miscegenation is rightly held to be an offense far worse than manslaughter … The position of the whites would speedily become intolerable from an interbreeding which would perforce drag down all to the mixed white level of certain parts of South America, notably Brazil—where the black man has bred not only with white but with Indians thus producing dreadful hybrids … the black man is something apart … something untouchable.”⁸

Lord Olivier, Colonial Administrator, and former Secretary of State for India, says of the union of the black man and the white woman: “There is no correspondingly strong instinctive aversion nor is there so strong an ostensible objection to a white man’s marrying a woman of mixed descent. The latter kind of union is much more likely to occur than the former. There is good biological reason for the distinction. Whatever the potentialities of the African stock as a vehicle for human manifestations, and, I, myself, believe them to be like those of the Russian people, exceedingly important and valuable—a matrix of emotional and spiritual energies that have yet to find their human expression in suitably adapted forms—the white races are now, in fact, by far, the further advanced in intellectual human development and it would be expedient on this account alone that their maternity should be economised to the utmost. A woman may be the mother of a limited number of children, and our notion of the number advisable is contracting, and it is bad natural economy to breed backward from her.”⁹

Mason Dixon, white Southerner, denouncing the verdict in the Rhinelander case said the marriage “should have been annulled as soon as it was established that there was colored blood in her veins. Down South we know how to handle such affairs. If the couple feel that they must live together that is their affair. But no civilized state should sanction marriage between white and black. New York and other states have no law against mixed marriages. Until they adopt such laws these states will be a disgrace to the nation.’”¹⁰

Rev. W. A. Cotton, missionary in South Africa: “During four hundred years Europeans as a race … have continuously, and confessedly do still lack, the gift of continence in their relations with colored peoples whom they have brought under their sway.

“Consequently the prohibition of marriage is very gravely to be reprobated …

“I must confess a very special drawing to me of delighted affection towards children who show in their faces not only their African origin but also the clear evidences of their derivation from people of my kin.”¹¹

Peter Nielsen, South African student of native life: “The familiar cry that once white blood is diluted with black it is “all up” with our civilization is not convincing when we remember that the groundwork of this civilization was built up by races that were not ‘pure’ white. Civilization during the dark ages sank to a very low level through no dilution of African blood, and that it was a mixed race, the Moors, who brought back to Europe the lost principles of Aristotelian science in which the crumbling structure of European culture was rebuilt … So far from being a deterrent to mental growth it would seem that an infusion of African blood in a white family is often associated with marked intellectual ability.”¹²

White woman married to a Negro in a letter to the Philadelphia Tribune: “No doubt my problem is not a new one, but I may present it in a different angle. It is that of intermarriage.

“Until I met the man who became my husband, I had thought that it was only the people of the white race who held such decided prejudices. But since, I find that the people of the colored race hold them also.

“Only within the last few days I overheard a conversation concerning my marriage in which this remark was made, ‘Only a white woman out of the gutter would marry a colored man.’ That seems such an unfair accusation, not only to the white woman, but to the colored man. To assert that he could only marry a woman of a low type seems to cast a reflection on the whole Negro race. If a Negro is honest, upright, a God-fearing citizen, why can’t he command the respect and admiration of anyone? Should it follow that because a white woman learns also to love him, that she is indecent?

“I sacrificed a great deal to become the wife of a Negro. But nothing that I gave up could ever compensate for the great happiness that we have together. Every day that I know him gives me greater respect for him, greater faith in everyone.

“The majority of people do not or pretend that they do not believe in intermarriage among the races. That is for each individual to decide for himself or herself. But why, I ask you, cannot two people who sincerely love each other spend their lives in married decency without people of both races trying to put stumbling blocks in their way and making it so humiliatingly hard for them?

“In this land which was founded on freedom, liberty, and equality, is it fair that only some should receive these blessings, their right to the pursuit of happiness? Is the Constitution of the United States only a mockery?

“I do not regret my marriage. A thousand times ‘No.’ I think I care for my husband as much as any woman has ever cared for a man. I only ask of my country the right for us to be able to find our own happiness and to gain our livelihood by our own exertions. This though seems an almost impossible favor to ask. I wish that you, through your paper, could help to make your people see that there COULD be harmony between men and women of different races and there must be if we are to hope for any prosperous future.”

Gilbert Haven, Methodist Episcopal bishop (1821-1880), predicting that some day America will think as highly of a human being in a black skin as it now “loathes” one: “The grand ladies of the South may yet be the mixed bloods of that region and many a white and fastidious wealthy Solomon will solicit the duskier, yet none the less loving and lovely daughter of Pharaoh, to give his house her perpetual blessing …

“The hour is not far off when the white-hued husband shall boast of the dusky beauty of his wife and the Caucasian wife shall admire the sun-kissed countenance of her husband as deeply and as unconscious of the present ruling abhorrence as is his admiration of her lighter tint …

“The Song of Songs will have a more literal fulfillment than it has ever confessedly had in America; and the long existing divinely-implanted admiration of Caucasians for black but comely maidens, be the proudly acknowledged and honorably gratified life of Northern and Southern gentlemen.”¹³

WHO IS NEGRO? EUROPEAN TYPES

IX. Left: Alexander Dumas, pere, as a young man. Right: First known portrait of Charles Dickens. Dickens was in all probability white but note a certain resemblance to Dumas, whose Negro ancestry is certain. Inset: Pierre Laval, former Premier of France.

Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt: “A great many people believe that there should be no intermingling of races. Hitler has proved with bloody massacres that he holds this belief. Nevertheless, down through the ages, it has been proved over and over again that this is one of the questions which people settle for themslves, and no amount of legislation will keep them from doing so.

“We would not have so many different shades of color in this country today if this were not so. This is a question, therefore, that I think we have to leave to individuals, not only all over the United States, but all over the world, to handle.

“There is no more reason to expect that there will be more intermarriage if the four fundamental basic rights of citizens are granted to tell people in this country than there will be if they are withheld. In fact, I think it probable that there would be less.”¹⁴

When apparently taken to task for the above, she wrote: “Some people have written to ask me if I was advocating mixed marriages and I would like to make it clear that I would never advocate this. It seems to me that in the mixing of racial strains the difficulties which always exist in any marriage are greatly enhanced. Races will mix, however. Even in this country we see the evidences of this mixture. Whether it has occurred in wedlock or not makes little difference from the biologist’s standpoint, because over the centuries a strong racial strain will probably obliterate a weaker one.”¹⁴

A Southern white man, writing to the Chicago Defender: “I have been living with a colored woman whom I love dearly for several years. We have five children, but were not married because the laws of this state do not permit intermarriage and because I had not given the matter of marrying much thought. However, after reading the Defender, I realized that I owe it to my children to give them a legal standing so that they can carry my name as well as inherit my property, of which I have considerable.”

According to his letter, he slipped away from Louisiana, brought the colored concubine to Chicago, married her and then went back to his Louisiana plantation. His white neighbors resented what he had done but dared not interfere because of the property he controlled. He concludes, “We are happy now. My hope is that other white men who are faced with the same situation that faced me will solve the problem as I solved it.”

Rev. John LaFarge, S.J., “No scientific proof appears to be available as to the deleterious effects from a purely biological standpoint, of the union between different races of mankind. Were such proof forthcoming it would fare hard with most of the civilized inhabitants of the earth as few of them, least of all, of European descent can claim any purity of stock. The evidence of Pitcairn Island or of the Russian-Aleut half-breeds of Alaska is against any theory of inherent deterioration due to the cross-breeding of ethnic groups. Some of the groups in the United States who are most vociferous in their insistence on ‘white racial integrity’—although a fair number of such have a dash of Negro ancestry without knowing it—take special pride in claiming Indian blood in their veins …

“Quite independently of any dubious biological considerations there are grave reasons against any general practice of intermarriage between members of different racial groups. These reasons, where clearly certified, amount to a moral prohibition of such a practice …

“Racial intermarriage naturally produces a tension in family relations not unlike that tension which is produced by a mixed marriage in the field of religion …”¹⁵

Writing six years later, Father LaFarge says, “If interracial justice brings intermarriage then any other form of contact between the races is fraught with the same danger. If intermarriage will grow out of such remote causes as admitting Negroes to trade unions or employing Negro stenographers, or allowing Negroes to vote or a voice in the expenditure of public funds, or educating those who possess natural talents then it will come out of tolerating their presence in the country at all or from baptizing Negro children or from admitting Negro converts to the Faith. Such an argument proves everything and nothing.”¹⁵

New Republic (October 18, 1943): “The bugaboo of intermarriage, which lurks in even the most civilized white minds, could as well be forgotten. People are going to mate with whom they please as they have in the past and laws to prevent it are futile … There have been many mixed couples legally married in the Northern states, whose lives would put to shame the clandestine carnality of the white men who have created the generations of mixed blood Negro—to whom they have repudiated all obligations of parenthood …

“It is ironic that those who cry loudest against social equality by which they mean “intermarriage,” hail from the states, counties and townships where white blood, regardless of the law, flowed in the heaviest volume in Negro veins. These protestants should know, if anyone should, that people mate with whom they please; it is a very personal and private decision.”

Walter A. Maier, “Lutheran Hour, Bringing Christ to the Nations” (letter to Baltimore Afro-American, Nov. 20, 1943) : “In hesitating to advocate the intermarriage of colored and white people I follow the same principle in speaking against mixed marriages for Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, and Lutherans and Reformed.

“I feel that young people who enter upon married life without being able to worship at the same altar are under a definite handicap.

“Answering the question, “Isn’t marriage better than the race mixing we have now without benefit of clergy? If two people like each other haven’t they the right and obligation to marry rather than engage in the kind of illicit intercourse which has changed the color of the colored race in America from black to brown?

“This certainly is not in any sense the exclusive alternative. The fact I do not advocate mixed marriages does not mean that I espouse the cause of illicit intercourse.”

1 Quoted from D. G. Croly, Miscegenation, p. 66. 1864. On p. 67 is an equally strong endorsement by Theodore Tilton, another abolition leader.

2 Editorial, March 4, 1924.

3 Reprinted from the Los Angeles Times in Pittsburgh Courier, March 8, 1930.

4 Letter in author’s possession.

5 The Devil’s Inkwell, p. 33, Houston, Tex. 1923.

6 Catholic Worker, Jan. 1935.

7 Christianity and the Race Problem, p. 60. 1924.

8 conflict of Color, p. 231. 1910.

9 White Capital and Coloured Labour, p. 37. In the 1928 edition this passage is omitted.

10 Collier’s Weekly, Jan. 29, 1926, p. 410.

11 Race Problem in South Africa, p. 103. 1926.

12 The Black Man’s Place in South Africa, p. 127-8. 1922.

13 National Sermons, pp. 356, 626, 624. 1869. Bishop Haven was one of the greatest spokesmen for the oneness of mankind in American history. Like Wendell Phillips, he indulged in none of the hedging so common among American leaders today. He once refused pastorship of a church in the South because Negroes would not be admitted to it on equality with white people.

14^a New Threshold Magazine, August, 1943.

14^b N. Y. World-Telegram, July 29, 1943. (“My Day.”)

15^a Interracial Justice, pp. 143-6. 1937.

15^b The Race Question and the Negro, p. 198. 1943.