This chapter explores how fears and stigma surrounding interracial sex (particularly between black males and white females) rest at the very heart of opposition to Brown v. Board of Education, the United States Supreme Court’s 1954 decision that invalidated racially segregated schools. It is striking that this dimension of Brown—the most celebrated and studied Supreme Court opinion of the twentieth century, and perhaps ever—forms a severely underappreciated part of its legacy. By recovering the anti-miscegenation sentiment that engulfed school desegregation discussions, I hope to demonstrate how an aversion to discussing sexuality prevents fully understanding both Brown and its resistance.
Illicit Love: Interracial Sex and Love in the United States and Australia
