Can someone help me find two OLD court cases related to interracial marriage?

[grude]

These would have occured in the USA, I'm not entirely sure where I read about them but it may have been in a very detailed article.

One was where a rich young white guy married a mixed race woman, and broke up with her when his family threatened to cut him off. It resulted in a court case where his family paid for a lawyer that claimed fraud, and this is why it stuck in my mind, the jury was shown by the woman her nipples to prove there was no way he believed she was not mixed race.

Apparently the story gets murkier because I remember the headstone of the woman being tracked down, and on it she had still decades later her former husband's last name hmmm.


The other one involved a couple who immigrated to the USA from Britain and beleived they were safe from anti-miscegenation laws because the husband was mixed race and considered himself some kind of technical term ending in roon. Apparently he got very angry that the court would think he was black.

Any help? I'm trying to google but yea.

[John Mace]

Mulatto: One white parent, one black parent (real African, not African-American)
Quadroon: One white parent, one mulatto parent. (1/4 African)
Octoroon: One white parent, one quadroon parent. (1/8 African)

Sometimes, mulatto could be used for anyone with mixed ancestry, but if you're keeping track of percentages, you go with the above.

[Lamia]

Originally Posted by grude

These would have occured in the USA, I'm not entirely sure where I read about them but it may have been in a very detailed article.

One was where a rich young white guy married a mixed race woman, and broke up with her when his family threatened to cut him off. It resulted in a court case where his family paid for a lawyer that claimed fraud, and this is why it stuck in my mind, the jury was shown by the woman her nipples to prove there was no way he believed she was not mixed race.

Sounds like Rhinelander v. Rhinelander. Wikipedia has an entry on the husband, Kip Rhinelander, with a brief summary of the trial.

[grude]

Originally Posted by Lamia

Sounds like Rhinelander v. Rhinelander. Wikipedia has an entry on the husband, Kip Rhinelander, with a brief summary of the trial.

Thats the one, thank you