antimiscegenation

Antimiscegenation refers to opposition to interracial marriage and, in some contexts, to interracial sexual relationships. It describes social attitudes and laws intended to prevent or punish unions across racial lines, and it has been used to uphold racial segregation and hierarchy.

The term antimiscegenation arises from miscegenation, the supposed mixing of races, and has been used in legal and political discourse since the 19th century. In law, it describes statutes that criminalized or restricted interracial marriage, as well as broader campaigns to prevent racial mixing.

In the United States, many states enacted anti-miscegenation laws from colonial times through the mid-20th century. These statutes varied in scope but commonly barred marriages between white and non-white partners and sometimes criminalized interracial sex or cohabitation, with penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment.

The issue culminated in Loving v. Virginia (1967), when the Supreme Court ruled that anti-miscegenation laws violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. After Loving, such laws were invalidated nationwide. While the legal framework changed, antimiscegenation remains a historical term associated with civil rights-era reforms and the broader struggle against racial segregation and discrimination.