Legal Definitions - miscegenation

Miscegenation refers to marriage or cohabitation between people of different racial backgrounds. Historically, in certain jurisdictions, particularly in the United States, laws were enacted to prohibit such unions, deeming them illegal.

These laws, often called "anti-miscegenation laws," were rooted in racial discrimination and aimed to maintain racial segregation. While such prohibitions were declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967, the term reflects a period when the legal system enforced racial barriers in personal relationships.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of miscegenation:

• Imagine a couple, one of African American descent and the other of Caucasian descent, living in a Southern U.S. state in the 1950s. Despite their mutual desire to marry, state laws explicitly forbade their union based on their racial differences. This prohibition meant their intended marriage would have been considered an act of miscegenation and therefore illegal under the statutes of that time.

• Consider a scenario in the early 1960s where a couple, a man of Asian heritage and a woman of European heritage, legally married in a state that permitted interracial unions. If they subsequently moved to a neighboring state that still enforced anti-miscegenation laws, their marriage might not have been recognized by the new state, or they could have faced legal challenges or social ostracism for their union, which was then legally classified as miscegenation.

• During the mid-20th century, civil rights activists in various U.S. states specifically targeted statutes that criminalized marriages between individuals of different racial backgrounds. These activists argued that such "anti-miscegenation" laws were discriminatory and violated fundamental human rights, highlighting the legal and social struggle against these prohibitions.