“Those who fear miscegenation which I, personally, do not consider in any way dangerous … not for the white race or for the Negro, or for mankind … may console themselves with the belief in a race consciousness, which would manifest itself in selective mating. Then matters would remain as they are.”4
Fay-Cooper Cole, professor of anthropology, University of Chicago: “There is sufficient reason to believe that the Negro and Caucasian races in the United States will ultimately amalgamate. This is going on to-day, has, in fact, gone so far that pure-blooded Negroes are in the minority, while a very high percentage of our Negro population is predominantly white. It should be noted that this is chiefly due to the white men seeking Negro women, and not to the union of Negro men and white women.
“Do I think race amalgamation would lead to a deterioration of American civilization? I DO NOT …
“My chief objection to race amalgamation as relating to black and white is in behalf of the half-breed. He has to struggle against such odds that SUCCESS can be attained only by a man of unusual ability and tenacity of purpose.
“I am not satisfied that the Negro is inherently inferior to the Caucasian. He is different — different physically. In his homeland he is different and has an entirely different background — social, economic and mental — while his life here in America has not been such as to give him the same outlook as his white neighbor.
“He has had no opportunity as a race to show whether or not he is capable of assimilating our civilization. Given the same background and opportunities I think it is quite probable that he will show himself the equal of the white. At the present time one of my best graduating students is a Negress.
“Give the Negro equal opportunities with the whites. Give more equipped schools and opportunities to advance as he shows ability; recognize merit regardless of color. See that the Negro population is decently housed, not pushed off to undesirable portions of the city.
“Assist the colored man to become a self-respecting member of our society; recognize his worthwhile qualities, and encourage him to become a loyal forward-looking American, rather than a member of a resentful, half-educated group which may easily be used by selfish leaders.”5
Dr. Charles B. Davenport, noted eugenist and biologist: “Already the South is full of persons of one-eighth Negro blood whose (illegitimate) children may legally marry descendants of blacks … Many a child arises in the third or later generations that by no test shows evidence of ‘African’ descent. How unjust the Missouri law that provides that the proportion of Negro blood is to be determined by the jury from the appearance of the person! The South, indeed, has a problem in its huge ‘feeble-minded’ colored population: but the problem is of the same order as that in the North and in England and the solution is: Forget unessentials like skin-color and focus attention on socially important defects. Then by sterilization or segregation prevent the reproduction of the socially inadequate. Thus will the mentally incompetent strains be eliminated and the good physical traits of some of the black races be added, as a valued heritage to enhance the physical manhood of the South.
“I feel sure that if law will take lessons from biology many of the disasters that have been feared may be averted.”6a
Dr. Davenport suggests the following law: “No person having one-half or more Negro blood shall be permitted to take a white person as spouse. Any person having less than one-eighth part of Negro blood shall not be given a license to marry a white person without a certificate from the state.”6b
Dr. George A. Dorsey, late curator of anthropology, Field Museum, Chicago: “Nature is not so prejudiced as we are. She says that there is a human race, that all human beings are of the same genus Homo, species sapiens. She draws no color line in the human or in any other species. Black and white dogs mix as readily as do blacks and whites when the sex impulse is not outlawed, and are equally fertile.”7
Edward M. East, late professor of genetics, Harvard University: “The Negro as a social group has produced but one man who would be placed among the first 15,000 or 20,000 Great Ones of the Earth. This is Alexandre Dumas …
“The obvious conclusion … is that the gene-packets of African origin are not valuable supplements to the gene-packets of European origin. It is the white germ-plasm that counts. This is further shown by the fact that the first generation hybrids, have hardly ever had distinctive achievements to their credit. It is when re-combination of the genes occurs, bearing with it the possibility of additional white endowments that men of merit appear.
“We can find no probability, that the Negro will contribute hereditary factors of value to the white race yet the pure Negro will gradually die out and the remaining members of our population will vary imperceptibly from black to white. In the social sense the black race will be absorbed. In the genetic sense the black germ plasm will remain because the inheritance of genes is alternative. What are we going to do about it?
“It seems to me that we must make the best of the situation. The Negro cannot be deported or sterilized. He must be treated decently, educated up to his intelligence level and made a part of our political system when qualified I can see no reasonable excuse for oppression and discrimination on a colour-line basis.”8
F. H. Hankins, professor of sociology, Smith University: “We think it can be shown that race-crossing is a factor in the production of talented men, and hazard the guess that most of the superior men of European history have been of mixed racial ancestry … Since the crossing of sound strains of different races is biologically sound we contend that well-endowed Italians, Hebrews, Chinese, and Negroes are better material out of which to forge a nation than average, or below average, Nordics.
“A second biological principle is that crossing of strains increase variability. This is highly important as a factor in evolution because it gives natural selection a wide range of individuality to choose from.
“Even as regards Negro-white crosses one can see no sound biological argument against them … Since the crossing of the races occurs primarily between white males and Negro females it may also be argued that miscegenation is a factor in race elevation. Such crossing usurps the reproductive capacities of the Negro race without affecting the fertility of the white stock. In so far, therefore, as the actual white fathers might be assumed to be superior to the possible Negro fathers an assumption not always correct the offspring will be better endowed.
“Arguments against the crossing of white and Negro must therefore be purely sociological.”9
Dr. Frederick Hoffman, statistician, Prudential Life Insurance Company: “I have never found an inter-mixed or inter-married white-Negro couple where the stamp of social inferiority was not plainly traceable as the result …
“Intermarriages between whites and blacks, just as much as wrongful sexual relations without marriage, are essentially anti-social tendencies and therefore opposed to the teachings of sound eugenics in the light of the best knowledge available to both races at the present time …
“The conclusion would seem warranted that the crossing of the Negro race with the white has been detrimental to its true progress and has contributed more than anything else to the excessive and increasing rate of mortality from the most fatal diseases as well as to its consequent inferior social efficiency and diminishing power as a force in American natural life.10 (Hoffman believes that it is only degenerate white women who marry Negroes and cites a number of instances.)
Earnest G. Hooton, professor of anthropology, Harvard University: “Amalgamation between whites and Negroes will go on, as it always has gone on. But the process is a slow one, because of the fact that few primary crosses occur and because the whites so largely outnumber the Negroes.
“Ultimately we might expect the entire population to show signs of Negro admixture in the same way that practically all of the people of India show more or less traces of the Dravidian admixture. But this process