John L. McClellan Quotes

I am not ... in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them ... to intermarry with white people.

I flatly deny that it is a civil right for a white man to marry a black woman or for a black man to marry a white woman.

The legalization of marriages of ex-slaves stunk in the Nostrils of the people of Virginia…they believed that the nigger was better off with as many wives as he chose.

There is no middle ground on the question of interracial marriage. A person either favors or condemns such unions. The Negroes and negrophiles in the United States today who are waging the campaign for complete racial equality must be assumed to favor the amalgamation of the races unless they have openly stated their opposition.

if any white person shall be guilty of sexual intercourse with any of the African race, they shall be subject, on conviction thereof to a fine of not exceeding one thousand dollars, nor less than five hundred, to the use of the Territory, and imprisonment, not exceeding three years.

…I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races…nor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry

If social equality should be granted and intermarriage should become a matter of individual taste, then the pride of race and the sense of blood superiority which has heretofore protected the Southern whites would be destroyed.

Blacks stand out uniquely among the array of American racial and ethnic groups in the degree to which marriage remains within the group.

I do not understand that because I do not want a Negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just let her alone.

A very large proportion of Virginians would want to continue segregation of the races because we believe we can provide a better system of education by doing that.

The legislature shall never pass any law to authorize or legalize any marriage between any white person and a negro, or descendant of a negro.

Our clear goal must be the advancement of the white race and separation of the white and black races.

Hereafter, in any State, Territory, possession, or the District of Columbia, the marriage of a white person and a Negro or mulatto or a person who shall have one-sixteenth or more of Negro blood, or with a Mongolian or with a person who shall have one-sixteenth or more of Mongolian blood, shall be unlawful, and such marriage shall be void. Any person who is a party to any such marriage, or who knowingly performs a marriage ceremony to which such persons are a party, shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not to exceed $10,000 and by imprisonment of not to exceed ten years.

Negroes and whites should be allowed to marry at the dictates of the individual's heart and mind.

In eighteen states in this white man's country and also in the District of Columbia, where the Nation's Capitol is located, intermarriage of the races is permitted by law. This fact is a national shame, or should I say crime, against the white race of America, and I pray God that these states and the Congress of the United States … will do something about this situation before it is too late

The black herring of intermarriage has been dragged too often across the trail to justice. 'Would you want your sister to marry a nigger?' is still the question that is supposed to stun any white man who sponsors rights for Negroes. It stirs Negroes to ironic laughter, although on all levels they recognize the white man's fear of intermarriage as deep seated…

You can't get more extreme than allowing our women to breed with Negroes

When I came here, there were two groups of United Church Women, one black and one white.

It always has been, and always will be the position of The Independent that the white folks will prepare Jim Crow accommodations for Negroes just so long as the race produces a Jim Crow leadership. Men would not make cotton, corn and other commodities to sell if there was no market for them; and in like manner, the white man would not offer the Negro second class or Jim Crow accommodations if the Negro would not accept them; and the Negro may expect to be Jim Crowed, buzzard-roosted, discriminated against, kicked about, kicked off the street cars and hauled on elevators with trash and garbage, boxes and plunder, so long as he submits to such conditions and grins at the white man with his hat in his hand. The Independent is informed that Billy Sunday will preach to the Jim Crow Negroes of Atlanta in the Jim Crow meeting provided for Negroes only in his tabernacle Monday night. Now, the gospel of Jesus Christ knows no color line. It is as susceptible to the black man as the white man. Jesus died for all; not for the white folk or for the black folk, but for every man who would seek him diligently in spirit and truth; and, if Billy Sunday can’t preach to Negroes and white folks under the same tent, at the same time, then he ought not to preach to either

The force of prejudice against marriage between black and white was such that no one would dare to brave it. It is not the legal penalty which is feared but a condemnation a thousand times more terrible.

White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories? Frank Graham favors mingling of the races.

All that is needed to make us the finest race on Earth is to engraft upon us the negro element, which Providence has placed by our side on this continent.... The white people of America are dying for want of fresh blood ... until church and state and society recognize not only the propriety but the necessity of the marriage of white and black.... in short, until the great truth shall be declared in our public documents and announced in the messages of our Presidents, that it is desirable that the white man shall marry the black woman and the white woman the black man.

Mrs. Roosevelt has gone so far in aiding the campaign for complete social equality that she has, in effect, endorsed intermarriage. She thinks marriage between whites and Negroes is an individual matter since it is a very personal problem. The unanimous condemnation of the Southland came down upon her.

I appeal for Caucasian unity. I appeal for the imperial destiny of our mighty race. This is our country. We made it. We molded it. We control it, and we always will. We have done great things. We have mighty things yet to do. The negro is an accident - an unwilling, a blameless, but an unwholesome, unwelcome, helpless, unassimilable element in our civilization. He is not made for our times. He is not framed to share in the duty and the destiny which he perplexes and beclouds. Let us put him kindly and humanly out of the way. Let us give him a better chance than he has ever had in history, and let us have done with him.

Some days ago you doubtless read reports published in the newspapers of the country of the opening of a local United Service Organizations unit in Washington for service men and women, regardless of color. The stories published at the time noted the presence at the opening of outstanding officials and semi-officials of the United States, and indicated that they joined with others of both races in singing such songs as Let Me Call You Sweetheart. No member of this House has greater respect for our leaders than I, but one can be pardoned if he questions the wisdom of such officials participating in these festivities. I unhesitatingly brand that affair as a distinct disservice to the Negro race—one to which our sanction should not be given. Whatever the intent of those responsible for the creation of this particular U. S. O. unit, its continued operation can result only in the intensification of the race problem, with which we of the South must constantly struggle. The race problem is grave enough without deliberately aggravating it by promoting the intermingling of Negroes and whites on such occasions