Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/105

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  • able by imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than

eighteen months nor more than ten years. Mississippi makes the punishment a fine of five hundred dollars, imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or both. The law of Missouri declares that one who knowingly intermarries in violation of the statute shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary two years or by a fine not less than one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not less than three months, or by both such fine and imprisonment, and adds that the jury shall determine the amount of Negro blood by appearance. Nevada enacts that the parties are guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be imprisoned in the State prison not less than one nor more than two years. North Carolina brands an attempted intermarriage as an infamous crime to be punished by imprisonment in the county jail or State prison not less than four months nor more than ten years, and the parties may also be fined at the discretion of the court. Oklahoma makes it a felony and provides that the parties shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars or imprisonment not less than thirty days nor more than one year, or both. Oregon simply makes it an offence punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary or county jail between three months and one year. South Carolina[43] declares attempted intermarriage is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than five hundred dollars or imprisonment in the penitentiary from one to five years. Texas, by a law of 1858, still in force in 1879, prescribed a punishment for the white person who attempted to marry a Negro but no punishment for the Negro. A Federal