This paper explores the relationship between anti-miscegenation laws, interracial marriage
and black males’ geographical distribution in the U.S. during and after the Great Migration.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Loving v. Virginia in 1967, which forced the
last 16 Southern states to strike down their anti-miscegenation laws, creates a unique
opportunity to explore the impact of an exogenous change in a state’s laws regulating
interracial marriages. Analyzing the U.S. Census data, I find that anti-miscegenation laws in
an individual’s state of birth affect the sorting of inter- and intraracially married black males
into destination states differentially.