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