Fighting over marriage four decades ago

[IndianaGreen]

Mildred and Richard Loving were married
during a time when interracial marriages
were illegal. They successfully challenged
Virginia's anti-miscegenation law.
(File photo by AP)

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2006

Fighting over marriage four decades ago

As legislators debate the merits of gay marriage in Maryland and Virginia this week, it seems an appropriate time to review another marriage debate that raged in every state in this country except one since the founding days of the United States.

At one time it was illegal for a white person and a black person to marry in every state in the union save Vermont.

Anti-miscegenation laws were on the books and enforced as the law of the land in 16 states until 1967. Before then, anti-miscegenation laws were slow to fall by the wayside in other states because of deeply rooted centuries-old prejudices and fear of what mix-raced unions would do to the sanctity of marriage in this country. Sound familiar?

<snip>

In its 1967 groundbreaking decision, Loving vs. Virginia, the United State Supreme Court struck down anti-miscegenation laws as unconstitutional. Mildred and Richard Loving were married in Washington, D.C., in June 1958. When they returned to Virginia, they were indicted by a Caroline County grand jury, which charged the two violated the state’s ban on interracial marriages.

In January 1959, they pleaded guilty and were sentenced to a year in jail. Their marriage was nullified. The jail sentence was suspended on the condition that the Lovings leave Virginia and not return together for at least 25 years. In November 1963, the Lovings filed a motion in state court to overturn the judgment and set aside the sentence because. They argued the interracial-marriage law was unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment.

http://www.houstonvoice.com/blog/index.cfm?type=blog&start=1/30/06&end=2/6/06#4972