Black Law Forum : Marriage in 1930s Georgia

Discussion in 'Black Law Forum' started by StefiA, Oct 13, 2010.

  1. cherryblossom Well-Known Member

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    ....And, Stefia, the "Jim Crow laws" were "legal" and "tacit" crimes, punishable by the DEATH of any Black male who touched a White woman or was ACCUSED of touching a White woman or even LOOKING at one.

    One of the most horrific examples of this was Emmett Till, a 14 y/o Black boy, who was TORTURED and KILLED for ALLEGEDLY "whistling" at a White woman in Mississippi in 1955.


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    And HERE'S what they did to him>>>>

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    So, for me and other African Americans, knowing the history of this country and the treatment of Black people, it is very hard to believe that your grandfather, a Black man, MARRIED a White woman in GEORGIA in the 1930s OR 1950s.
  2. cherryblossom Well-Known Member

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    ....and the WHITE men who did this were ACQUITTED by an ALL WHITE JURY.

    And, THEN, they SOLD their CONFESSION story to a magazine, telling just how they KILLED Emmett Till.


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  3. StefiA New Member

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    @Cherryblossom
    OMG I am such a total idiot - when I was working this out last night talking to this guy I got my sums totally wrong and only just realised when you said about the dates - I know exactly what I've done - my father is 52 and I'd remembered him saying my grandfather was 24 when he was born and what I've done is take 24 away from 1958 to get 1934 so the date I gave was when my grandfather was born, not married - talk about dyscalculia....

    So the marriage was in the mid 1950's - I'll have to see if my father knows the exact year. Looks like it still doesn't solve the problem though if those laws were still in force in the 1950s. And I can't see that the laws would have been any different back where my grandmother came from in Louisiana either with that being a southern state - maybe they just ran away up north somewhere?

    PS that was so horrible what they did to that poor kid and just for whistling at a girl.
  4. cherryblossom Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, I figured you had the dates wrong.

    And that "girl" was a married White woman...in her 20s then.

    But that is what would have happened to ANY Black male, man or boy, for talking to or touching a White woman.

    BTW, even the northern states weren't much better toward inter-racial marriages.....even if NOT officially "illegal," many cities would not have accepted an inter-racial couple in their White communities.


    And Emmett Till's murder was just one of countless others.


  5. StefiA New Member

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    @Cherryblossom

    Well, sleep needed here as its way past midnight - but I'm going to have to get back onto this in the morning...

    I know there must have been some places where they could have got away with this just because I'm here, plus I've chatted with several other American quadroon girls same age as me on mixed forums - so we sorta prove they must have got away with living together somewhere even if they weren't married :10500:

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