Eugenics: The Racial Integrity Law

In January of 1926, the Public Assemblages Act made it legal to separate whites and blacks in public halls, theaters, opera houses, and motion picture shows. The final Acts beginning in 1928 attempted to fix the definition of racial definitions. It redefined colored as anyone who has any ascertainable degree of negro blood, any negro blood in their ancestry.

The Racial Integrity Laws were passed to maintain social order and to preserve the white race. They were enforced through careful monitoring of birth records and marriage records. What race or color a person was determined what their status was in the United States. If you had the slightest trace of African blood, then you were black. These laws were passed at the height of Eugenics. Eugenics

Sarah Page accused Dick Rowland of attempted criminal assault. Sarah was an elevator operator and when Rowland got onto her elevator he accidently stepped on her foot, but she accused him of assault. The police were called and ultimately determined what Rowland said happened is what occurred. The following day the Tulsa Tribune printed an article discussing the supposed assault. Rumors of a lynching began circulating and Rowland was taken into custody. He like Mays was removed from the jail and brought to an undisclosed location. Because of this situation one of the worse race riots in history took place. There were fires set, there was attack by air, blacks and white shot upon on another. Again, as with the Wilmington Riot, blacks fled the city. These riots are based on interracial sex. The irrational fear the white race would somehow be tainted. They are also based on the white race maintaining their superiority. White supremacy is at the core of interracial

By 2011 96% of African Americans and 86% of whites agreed with interracial marriage. In 1967 sixteen states had laws on the books banning interracial marriage. This was the same year the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. In 2014 there were 5.3 million marriages in the United States between husbands and wives of different races and ethnicities. The 2010 census revealed that 1 in 10 marriages are made up of interracial couples, a 28% increase since 2000. Interracial marriages are most common between opposite sex couples in the Western and South Western regions of the United States. Pew research in 2010 revealed that 15% of new marriages in 2010 were between different people and ethnicities which was almost double from 1980. In 1990 only 48% of Americans approved of interracial marriage. By 2012 the approval rate was up to 83%.

Interracial marriage may not be as controversial as it once was, but it is still rare between blacks and whites. Miscegenation laws were established in colonial times and lasted for hundreds of years. They were invented for many reasons including fear, power, and control of a population. Each of the riots described above all related back to the fear of interracial sex. Keeping the white race pure became a priority as miscegenation laws had a foundation in white supremacy. Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court ruled on Loving vs. Virginia removing all miscegenation laws and we became