We invite you to join scholars Dr Kathryn Schumaker, Dr Michael Green, Associate Professor Frances Clarke, and Dr Aaron Nyerges of the University of Sydney and the United States Studies Centre for a book launch and panel discussion of Dr Schumaker’s recent book, Tangled Fortunes: The Hidden History of Interracial Marriage in the Jim Crow South (Basic Books, 2025).
Prior to the US Supreme Court’s 1967 ruling in Loving v. Virginia, most American states prohibited interracial marriages at one time or another. But as Dr Schumaker reveals in Tangled Fortunes, such laws did not effectively prevent interracial marriages. Indeed, enforcement of such laws was inconsistent when it came to relationships between white men and Black women. In some Southern communities, such unions were tolerated – though often subject to social disapproval. The book offers a new narrative of the rise and fall of racial segregation from the perspectives of ordinary people whose primary goal was to keep their families together in the face of great difficulty.
