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Interracial marriage is a marriage between two people that are different races. When we think of interracial marriage, we think about an African American and a White person. African American and White is the most talked about relationship when discussing interracial couples or marriage. When talking about interracial marriage and couples, we must think about Native Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican American, Pacific Islanders, and Middle Easterners. All races are not going to marry their own race and it should be discussed on why states made interracial marriage illegal. Some states took longer to legalize interracial marriage and the cases that helped make a difference in the country. In this paper, I am going to discuss the difference between interracial then and now and the difference between different countries. I will also discuss the Supreme Court Cases that have changed America in marriage.
Interracial Marriage Then
Before the Supreme Court Case, Loving v. Virginia, interracial marriage was illegal in the Southern states of the United States such as, Florida, Texas, Alabama, and Virginia. Interracial couples who were wanting to get married could be charged and placed in prison because it was illegal at the time. They also received death threats from people living in the same city because people believed that blacks should not be with whites. The Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court Case changed America particularly the Southern states because the judges said that it was unconstitutional to make interracial marriage illegal.
The Loving v. Virginia case changed America forever, “The Supreme Court struck down the last of these statutes in the 1967 case of Mildred and Richard Loving, a black woman and a white man who were arrested and banished from Virginia for the crime of being married” (Staples,2008). After the ruling of the Loving v. Virginia, states were forced to legalize interracial marriage, however many states failed to legalize it in 1967, “Despite the Loving decision, individual courts and clerks sometimes refused to issue marriage licenses, as in the 1970 Mississippi case of Roger Mills and Berta Linson” (Shields,2017).
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Interracial Marriage Then in Different Countries
Interracial marriage on different continents such as Europe, Asia, and Africa had different views and beliefs towards interracial marriage. For example, during WWI, while the men were fighting, French women would marry men from different countries and it was accepted. Every country did not have the same views, “Nazi Germany and apartheid-era South Africa both forbade marriage between certain ethnic and racial groups” (Shields,2017). During the wars, thousands of men that came from different countries would marry women from that country, and after the war some men would stay in that country and some would bring their wives to America.
If a country did not allow interracial marriage, then the couple would move to a different country where interracial marriage was accepted. Some countries were not focused on the marriage of different ethnic groups as much as other countries. Racial groups also have different beliefs, “South Asian and East Asian immigrants are less likely to marry a U.S.-born White spouse than are immigrants from Southeast Asia” (Bohra-Mishra & Massey,2015, cited in Ciabattari,2017, p.100). In some countries, if interracial couples were found, they would sometimes kill the couple because it was opposed.
Interracial Marriage Then in Northern States
In Northern states, such as, California, Nevada, Kansas, and Nebraska were free states which resulted in being more diverse than southern states. The Northern states in America were more accepting with interracial marriage because there were more ethnic groups on the North. Southern states have more traditional views and northern states have more of a cultural pluralism view. In California, “Laws prevented black/white marriages, though they sometimes also regulated the marriage rights of Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, and Native Americans” (Lubin,2004). Interracial marriage became legal in most northern states between 1948 and 1967, and Washington and New Mexico’s interracial marriage law was passed before 1887. I believe that interracial marriage was passed earlier in northern states then southern states because they were extremely diverse, and the courts ruled that it was unconstitutional to ban interracial marriage.
Interracial Marriage Then in Southern States
People from the south did not approve of interracial marriage because they did not believe in two different races being together. The southern states we did not want different races and ethnic groups to be apart of their society and everyday lives. Religion is also a factor in interracial marriage because some people will say that God only wanted marriage to be between the same race. Southern states are more religious than northern states and will their region for their beliefs. Southerners did not want interracial couples to have biracial children and would often threaten the interracial family. In the book Tell the Court I Love My Wife by Peter Wallenstein he states, “the public sphere sought to govern the most private dimensions of people’s lives and to illustrate how individual challenges to anti-miscegenation laws in turn influenced public policy” (Wallenstein,2002, cited in Smith,2004, p.1077). Southerners were afraid of not being in power and did not want to lose their power to different races.
After Loving v. Virginia, Alabama had a law that people could deny the right for interracial couples to get married. In 2000, voters of Alabama had voted to ban the prohibition of having the right to deny interracial marriage. Alabama’s constitution was very secure and that is why they did not have many marriages for interracial couples. For example, if an interracial couple wanted to get married in Alabama, the county clerks had the right to deny them a marriage license. In 1970, Roger Mills, who is white, wanted to marry Berta Linson, who was black, in Mississippi after the ban of interracial marriage. Mississippi being a very religious and traditional state denied Roger and Berta. Roger went through several courts to he could obtain a marriage license. They both received death threats and Roger was a Sunday school teacher, his church would have sermons saying that mixed seeds are a sin.
Interracial Marriage Supreme Court Cases
The most known Supreme Court case when discussing interracial marriage is Loving v. Virginia that passed on June 12, 1967. This case was the most publicized because Mildred Loving refused to give up and wanted to change the laws against interracial couples. Mildred and Richard Loving got married in Washington D.C. because interracial marriage was illegal in Virginia but legal in Washington D.C. Banning interracial marriage was ruled as unconstitutional and all states were told to legalize interracial marriage. Pennsylvania was the first state to repeal the ban of interracial marriage in 1780 and Alabama was the last state to legalize interracial marriage in 2000.
Pace v. Alabama was the actual first case to attempt to repeal the ban of interracial marriage and sex in 1883. At the time, it was illegal for a non-white person to have sexual relations or marriage with a white person. Tony Pace was having a sexual relationship with Mary Cox, who was white, and they were arrested because their sexual relationship violated the state’s anti-miscegenation statute. Pace and Cox were sentenced to two years in the state penitentiary for having sexual relations while it was illegal to do so in Alabama.
In 1948, California repealed their ban on interracial marriage because the Supreme Court case Perez v. Sharp. Andrea Perez was a Mexican American and Sylvester Davis was an African American, they applied for a marriage license and the County Clerk, W. G. Sharp denied them because Andrea was Mexican. The court decided that marriage is a fundamental right and Perez and Davis could not be denied a marriage license because of Sharp’s prejudice. The California Supreme Court stated that, “fundamental right to marry involves the freedom to marry not just anyone, but the ‘person of [one’s] choice” (Lenhardt,2008). Perez v. Sharp is a case that has been used to legalize same-sex marriage in 2015.
Interracial Marriage Now in the United States
It has been 51 years since Loving v. Virginia, when interracial marriage became legal in the United States. In 1958, “87% of Americans now favor marriage between blacks and whites, up from 4% in 1958” (Newport,2013). The approval rating for interracial marriage went up and that proves that the people of America are becoming more open minded. We still have people that believe that a marriage should stay between the same race but, the younger generations are accepting a person’s choice of who they love. In some areas of the country, there are still people that look at interracial couples differently particularly in rural areas. People that live in rural areas are most likely to support traditional views than people that live in urban areas.
When discussing interracial marriage, same-sex marriage must be included because there are couples that are interracial and same-sex couples. It is hard to believe that 51 years ago a White person and an African American could go to prison because they got married, and only three years ago all same-sex marriage was legal in the United States. Many of the states had made same-sex marriage illegal but, in most states it was legal. Some of the legal states were California, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, and Oklahoma. Alabama legalized same-sex marriage in June 2015 after the Supreme Court Case Obergefell v. Hodges. There were also some states that did not recognize a relationship between same-sex couples.
Interracial Marriage Now in Different Countries
Interracial marriage in different countries are looked at differently than interracial marriage is in the United States. In many countries, the color of one’s skin does not matter but they focus on the love between the couple. Annalisa Lista stated that, “ There is an increase in mixed marriages in France: a rise of 8% from 1950 to 2015” (Lista, 2017). In many countries, all citizens may not agree with interracial couples or marriage. In 1968, 25% of France disapproved of interracial marriage, 72% disapproved in America, and 36% in Greece. Interracial is becoming more common in many countries because there are millions of people traveling and moving to different countries that are from different countries.
