1973/11/01 by Delores P. Aldridge · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Migration and Labor Dynamics #Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy #White (mutation) #Demography #Statute #Ethnic group #Categorization #Marital status #Geography #Population #Psychology #Sociology #Political science #Law
paper · doi:10.2307/350877
openalex publication_date 1973/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
Following the Leving versus Virginia decision of 1967 which declared statutes against interracial marriages unconstitutional in the United States, it might be surmised that there would be a rapid increase in intermarriage between white and nonwhites in states such as Georgia which had forbade such marriages. The purpose of this study, in presenting the statistical aspect of interracial marriage in the state of Georgia, is to note the rate of occurrence since 1967 while adding to the overall extensiveness and recency of such data. The present study is based on official registration statistics for all marriages performed in Georgia from January, 1968, through December, 1970. Georgia's method of collecting and classifying data provides white-nonwhite figures rather than a breakdown of racial groupings.2 This categorization of data may be responsible for the lack of support of previous research3 wherein in the majority of white-nonwhite marriages, the nonwhite male marries the caucasian female. This has been clearly the case when nonwhite referred specifically to blacks; however, data in this study combine all people of color into a nonwhite category. Therefore, it is possible that the white males are married to Japanese, Chinese or other nonwhites and not necessarily to black females. The findings of the study clearly indicate an increase in interracial marriage since 1967. So while relative figures are not large, white-nonwhite marriages have risen to a statistically significant degree in Georgia with a larger number occurring between white males and nonwhite females for every year except 1969. There was a 448 per cent increase in the number in interracial marriages (from 21 in 1967 to 115 in 1970). There was a statistically significant (at the .001 level; X2 = 62.279, df= 3) increase in the rate of interracial marriage in Georgia (from .04 per cent of all marriages in 1967 to .18 per cent in 1970). It is also interesting that the majority of interracial marriages occurred outside of the Metropolitan area. This, then, indicates that individuals married in areas more hostile in terms of black-white and nonwhite-white relations. What seems to be the important factor is that having legal prohibitions removed, individuals will marry those outside of their own racial grouping even though they are confronted with obstacles in the larger society. More significant to students of race relations is the need to