The expression, "I'm free, white, and 21," can only ever mean that the speaker is entitled to do whatever they please, as their status means nothing can get in their way. In the lengthy period during which it was popular, free could have meant not being imprisoned, or it could have referred to an enslaved person. 21 is an age when you are no longer restricted due to youth. It's the implication that being white means you can do what you like, and being other than white means you can't that's most troubling.
The first known usage was in 1828, when property ownership was removed as a prerequisite for voting. You needed to be free, white, 21, and male. The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, should have taken care of the "white" part. Still, it didn't apply to most Native Americans, most of whom weren't recognized as citizens until 1924 by the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
In 1915, in the Supreme Court in Guinn v. The United States, Chief Justice Edward Douglass White wrote an opinion that outlined why Louisiana violated the 15th Amendment when they used a "grandfather clause" requiring literacy tests for those ineligible to vote before 1866. A Louisiana state judge had previously ruled in 1898 that the new legislation was simply a way of maintaining the "right of manhood," deserving of all men "free, white, and twenty-one." In its original context, free, white, and 21 was all about voter suppression.
By 1856, the expression took a new meaning, used chiefly by white women exerting their right to make the few choices they were allowed, including whom to have relationships with. The nation's first advice columnist, Dorothy Dix, used the expression to tell young women they could play a more significant role in choosing their mate. By 1931, "free, white, and 21" came to Hollywood films. Invariably, whenever a white woman used that expression, she came to harm, or at least it didn't end well. There was no advocacy for women's rights in the early 1920s and 1930s.
Usually, a white woman told another white person to mind their business; she would do as she pleased. The one time a white woman said it to a Black man, it didn't turn out so well. In the 1959 film, "The World, the Flesh, and the Devil," Harry Belafonte and Inger Stevens thought they were the only remaining living people on the planet. That didn't keep Stevens from using the phrase when Belafonte suggested she stay busy to relieve her stress. He later said:
"A little while ago, you said you were 'free, white, and 21.' That didn't mean anything to you, just an expression you've heard for a thousand times. Well, to me, it was an arrow in my guts!"
Henry Fonda, as Henry Ford, was shown working up the courage to use the expression against his domineering father in the 1937 film, "That Certain Woman." The real Henry Ford used the term to tell his stockholders he would do as he pleased. President Franklin Roosevelt used the term publicly when discussing his son in 1933. The Baltimore Afro-American newspaper responded.
"His use of the pre-Civil War expression … isn't particularly apropos, we take it, in these days when all Americans are free, and color is no barrier to citizenship."
By the beginning of World War II, the U.S. Government intervened with Hollywood, recognizing the harm its racial stereotypes were causing America. A 1942 poll showed 49% of Black respondents thought they might fare better under Japanese rule. Many Black artists during the Harlem Renaissance thought they would do better in France. Some Black people considered Communism, as Communists supported The Scottsboro Boys falsely accused of rape in 1931, and most American institutions didn't. Most Black people were disillusioned, as Ralph Ellison described in "Invisible Man."
After 1943, the term was only used in one movie over a period of 16 years, a bad one at that. Eric Johnston, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, "issued an order forbidding screen stars to use the line: 'I'm free, white, and twenty-one.' Such arrogant assumptions on the part of a minority in world status are bound to bring reprisals, and Russia has seized upon this weakness in our democracy to exploit it."
By the 1960s, the Civil Rights and Black Power movements combined did what common sense could not. The fear of repercussions from Black people ended the use of the expression.
"Free, white, and 21" is barely heard anymore. Our youngest generations may never have heard it, but the Internet is full of possibilities. Most of the movies that used the term are no longer in circulation. Parents aren't likely to have to explain it to their children. We should remember there was once a time it was often in use, with no concern for the millions of Black Americans that might object. In the age of concealed carry, stand your ground and permitless concealed carry. The result might be different than hoped.
I encourage readers to watch this short montage video of the expression used in multiple films. The very casualness is telling.