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>> 77 3 Plessy v. Racism Throughout the nineteenth century, the United States’ acquisition of territory incorporated more types of people, complicating the master narrative of white supremacy that the Atlantic colonies established. Interracial encounters occurred in various paradigms, showing that mixture was relevant to more than just blacks and whites. Interracial intimacy with Hispanics, Indians , and Asians tested the borders of inclusion in different ways in the context of white supremacy, just as they do today. Even though the Civil War had ended, legal battles over the meanings of citizenship erupted throughout the Reconstruction era. These proved relevant to all racial minorities, even though the question of emancipation focused primarily on African Americans . Those who argued for an expansion of citizenship for minorities faced a grave defeat with Plessy v. Ferguson, in which the Supreme Court decided the legality of racial segregation in 1896. Set in Louisiana, the principals in this case were people of color with a high degree of mixture in their backgrounds. Because of the state’s French and Spanish colonial past, Louisiana had a different perspective on racial mixing than did most of the United States. The British colonies on the East Coast protected white racial purity by punishing interracial marriage and leaving white male sexual privilege alone. They also promoted endogamy by bringing British women to the colonies soon after their establishment. On the other hand, the French settling Louisiana (much like the Spanish settling Mexico) accepted racial mixing as part of their colonial identity. It took much longer for marriage-able women to arrive, so the original settlers took black and Indian mates. They also privileged white male sexual privilege, but they set up practices that let the existence of their mixed population be more public. Some of their offspring were slaves, but some were free people of color who owned property, enjoyed a higher standard of living, and identified as Francophone just as the French did. This is how the term Creole, which in its strict sense referred to European settlers born in the colonies, came to refer to the polyglot of European, African, and indigenous descent in New Orleans. Since the nineteenth century, Louisianians concealing the racial mixture in the region’s past have inscribed a white-only meaning to 78 > 79 In 1890, when a more conservative state legislature passed the Separate Car Act, these former radicals deployed their sense of public rights to protest racial segregation. The Comité des Citoyens, the Creole-of-color group developing the test case, ultimately retained Albion Tourgée, Civil War veteran , Reconstruction federal judge, and author, as lead counsel in their campaign . Many historians assume that the Creoles of color undertook this legal action to protect their own privileged status. Some have interpreted their work as relevant to the segregation of African Americans only. Others have cast it as a lost cause, a legal folly but a moral victory. To the contrary, the effort was part of a utopian vision that they believed in. The Plessy campaign attempted to transform society as a whole, not just to address one issue, and racial mixture was at the center of this effort. While many of these Creoles of color appeared white, they knew that their mixture excluded them from whiteness in the predominant American sense. So they undertook this test case to challenge racial classification altogether, for all minority groups. Just as Wendell Phillips knew that other minority groups were relevant to the debates about racism, equality, and mixture in 1853, these activists knew that their success would affect all. Central in their strategy was the use of mixture to challenge racial categorization.3 In this chapter, I present three other paradigms of mixture to show the relevance of the Plessy drama to the rights of many minority groups, mixed or not. Bringing these understandings together shows how the legal team revised the positive visions of racial mixture before them, whether that of William Short, Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, or Wendell Phillips. It also connects the Plessy v. Ferguson case to every progressive use of mixed race that followed. Israel Zangwill’s melting pot called for the absolution of past animosities and the creation of interethnic families. The Multiracial Movement believed that mixed race would sabotage traditional racial categorization , leading to its dissolution. Mixed-race public figures in entertainment, sports, and politics indicate the arrival of a postracial state where their successes prove that racism has failed. Even before Americans moved from east to...

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