TY - GEN T1 - Romance and rights : the politics of interracial intimacy, 1945-1954 T2 - Book collections on Project MUSE. A1 - Lubin, Alex LA - English PP - Jackson PB - University Press of Mississippi YR - 2005 UL - https://ebooks.jgu.edu.in/Record/jstor_dda_ocm62256874 AB - Romance and Rights: The Politics of Interracial Intimacy, 1945-1954 studies the meaning of interracial romance, love, and sex in the ten years after World War II. How was interracial romance treated in popular culture by civil rights leaders, African American soldiers, and white segregationists? Previous studies focus on the period beginning in 1967 when the Supreme Court overturned the last state antimiscegenation law (Loving v. Virginia). Lubin's study, however, suggests that we cannot fully understand contemporary debates about "hybridity," or mixed-race identity, without first comprehending how WWII changed the terrain. The book focuses on the years immediately after the war, when ideologies of race, gender, and sexuality were being reformulated and solidified in both the academy and the public. Lubin shows that interracial romance, particularly between blacks and whites, was a testing ground for both the general American public and the American government. The government wanted interracial relationships to be treated primarily as private affairs to keep attention off contradictions between its outward aura of cultural freedom and the realities of Jim Crow politics and anti-miscegenation laws. Activists, however, wanted interracial intimacy treated as a public act, one that could be used symbolically to promote equal rights and expanded opportunities. These contradictory impulses helped shape our current perceptions about interracial romances and their broader significance in American culture. Romance and Rights ends in 1954, the year of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, before the civil rights movement became well organized. By closely examining postwar popular culture, African American literature, NAACP manuscripts, miscegenation laws, and segregationist protest letters, among other resources, the author analyzes postwar attitudes towards interracial romance, showing how complex and often contradictory those attitudes could be. -- OP - 183 CN - E185.62 .L83 2005eb SN - 1423732081 SN - 9781423732082 SN - 9781604730593 SN - 1604730595 SN - 1282917226 SN - 9781282917224 SN - 1578067057 SN - 9781578067053 KW - Miscegenation (Racist theory) : United States : History : 20th century. KW - United States : Race relations : History : 20th century. KW - Métissage : États-Unis : Histoire : 20e siècle. KW - États-Unis : Relations raciales : Histoire : 20e siècle. KW - SOCIAL SCIENCE : Sociology : Marriage & Family. KW - Miscegenation (Racist theory) KW - Race relations KW - United States KW - 1900-1999 KW - History ER -