The Revolt Against Social Equality: Miscegenation laws Frasher v. State – Texas, 1873 (3 Tex. App. 263)
Beginning of the struggle to desegregate juries Cavitt v. State – Texas, 1883 (15 Tex. App. 190); Carter v. State – Texas, 1898 (46 S.W. 236, 48 S.W. 508), reversed, 177 U.S. 442 (1900); Whitney v. State – Texas, 1900-01 (59 S.W. 895, 63 S.W. 879)
| ![]() Former slave with field horn, Marshall, Texas (1939) - courtesy Farm Security Administration and LIbrary of Congress
“It has always been the policy of this state to maintain separate marital relations between the whites and the blacks … The people of Texas are now, and have ever been, opposed to the intermixture of these races. Under the police power possessed by the states they undoubtedly, in our judgment, have the power to pass such laws.” – Judge Mathew Ector, in Frasher
“If both [the accused and the victim] were colored persons … we fail to appreciate how race prejudice could have entered into the administration of the law [by all-white grand jury], unless it be assumed that race prejudice, on the part of th whites against the blacks, is so bitter and acute as that the law would not be fairly and impartially administered.” – Justice __, in Carter
“A number of cases involving this question are coming before this court, and we respectfully call the attention of the district judges to this matter, and refer them to the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States … the constitution of the United States, as construed by the highest tribunal in the land, is the supreme law, and should be respected and obeyed …. It will serve no useful purpose to delay the case and send it to this court for review.” – Judge __ Henderson, in Whitney |
EMPIRE OF LAWS - The Legal History of the 50 American States > 7. SOUTHWEST LEGAL HISTORY > 7.2 Southwest (1870-1900): Integrating into the American Fabric > 7.2.1 Southwest (1870-1900): Water Law for a Growing Region > 7.2.2 Southwest Legal History (1870-1900): Early Civil Rights, Pacific Style >