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Application for Marriage License Under the Racial Integrity Act, 1924

CONTENT WARNING

Materials in the Library of Virginia’s collections contain historical terms, phrases, and images that are offensive to modern readers. These include demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethnicity, and nationality; enslaved or free status; physical and mental ability; and gender and sexual orientation. 

Context

Marriage licenses such as this one began to appear after Racial Integrity Act was introduced in 1924. The application for marriage shows how an individual had to indicate that he or she was not "a habitual criminal, idiot, imbecile, hereditary epileptic or insane person” to be given the right to marry. In addition, an individual also had to indicate whether he or she was "white, colored, or mixed” as race interracial marriage was not allowed under the law.

The Racial Integrity Act was introduced in 1924 in the General Assembly as Senate Bill No. 219, then as House Bill No. 311. When the act was passed, it prohibited interracial marriage and defined a white person as someone "who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian." The act was passed to preserve “whiteness” against race-mixing and required that individuals fill out a certificate of racial composition. Originally, the act required that all individuals register their race, but many white Virginians did not want to do so. The act changed the requirement for individuals born before June 14, 1924, and the completion of certificates would be voluntary. In addition, the cost to register was placed on the individual, not the state. When the act was introduced, persons with traces of American Indian ancestry were still granted the right to marry white individuals -- this exception came about as some prominent white elites claimed to be descendants of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. During that time, a white person was defined as an individual who had less than one sixty-fourth part Indian and no African American heritage.

In 1924, the act was challenged when James Conner and Dorothy Johns applied to marry in Rockbridge County, Virginia. The clerk A.T Shield found Conner’s race to be white, but Johns’ race was defined as part white, part "colored." Under the Racial Integrity Act, the clerk denied the marriage application and Johns immediately filed a law suit. Johns argued that the 19th century records did not detail the fact that her colored ancestry was indeed part Indian, but the clerk still refused to issue a marriage license. In 1926, the act was revised to remove the "Pocahontas exemption” as a consequence from court cases presented by individuals such as Dorothy Johns. When the act was revised, it made cases such as such as Johns' impossible to win and redefined whiteness in Virginia as someone "whose blood is entirely white, having no known, demonstrable or ascertainable admixture of the blood of another race.” The Racial Integrity Act remained law until 1967 when the U.S Supreme Court found it unconstitutional in the Loving v. Virginia case.

Citations: “Application for Marriage License,” Library of Virginia, accessed September 14, 2015, https://lva.omeka.net/items/show/85. Rockbridge County (Va.) Clerk's Correspondence, 1912-1943. Local Government Records Collection, Rockbridge County Court Records. The Library of Virginia. 12-1245-002. Wolfe, B. Racial Integrity Laws (1924–1930). (2015, August 24). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Racial_Integrity_Laws_of_the_1920s.

Standards

Social Studies: USII.1, USII.4, USII.6, VUS.1, VUS.8, GOVT.1, GOVT.9

Suggested Questions

Preview Activity

Scan it: Scan the document. What words or phrases stand out to you? Why might such a document be considered controversial?

Post Activities

Food for Thought:  The concept of racial purity and interracial marriage was at issue for a long time in Virginia. Why do you think it took so long to remove the Racial Integrity Act? How might have the act impacted communities and families across the state?

Current Connections: What similarities and/or differences do you see between the struggle for interracial marriage and the fight for LGBTQIA+ marriage equality?