"Without Any Limitation Due to Race": US Civil Rights, Women's Rights, and the 1962 UN Convention on Consent

In 1961 and 1962, policymakers discussed a new United Nations Convention on Consent for Marriage. They found a problem in Convention’s assertion that “all men and women” had a right to marry “without any limitation due to race,” fearing that many in the Senate would interpret this as establishing interracial marriage as legal.[1] This paper examines debates among American policymakers and women activists about women’s marriage rights in response to the Convention. How did the Convention on Consent influence women’s rights conversations and efforts to adopt or resist marriage rights as outlined within it?

 Highlighting both the ideals and lived experiences of black and white womanhood, I argue that we cannot understand the impact of this and other women’s rights efforts during this period without considering the politics of civil rights. I explore circulating ideas of marriage and family through State Department records and the papers of women’s rights organizations in the US. Grounded in historical methodology, this work benefits from the influence of feminist theory on consent, marriage, and sexuality. Following scholars such as Laura Briggs and Matthew Connelly, I highlight the significance of gender, race, and family to power and diplomacy.

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[1] This referenced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 Dec. 1948, Article 16.1. United Nations, Convention on Consent for Marriage, Age of Marriage, and Registration of Marriages, 7 Nov 1962, Preamble. UN, UDHR, 10 Dec. 1948, Article 16.1.

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