While in 20 states there is no law on the subject, it is
needless to say that popular feeling about it is almost uniform, and
that the legislators of New England for instance would refuse to give
their daughters in marriage to Negroes, even though they might the day
before have voted down a proposed law to prohibit intermarriage on the
ground that it was an expression of race prejudice.
In a majority of the states which have no legislation of this kind,
bills have been introduced during the last two or three years, and have
been defeated through the energetic interference of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, an organization of
which Oswald Garrison Villard is chairman of the Board of Directors and
W. E. B. DuBois, a brilliant mulatto, is Director of Publicity and
Research. As this association represents a very large part of the more
intelligent Negro public opinion, its attitude deserves careful
consideration. It is set forth summarily in a letter[142] which was
addressed to legislators in various states, as follows:
"The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
earnestly protests against the bill forbidding intermarriage between the
races, not because the Association advocates intermarriage, which it
does not, but primarily because whenever such laws have been enacted
they have become a menace to the whole institution of matrimony, leading
directly to concubinage, bastardy, and the degradation of the Negro
woman.
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