| @Fidelio- the laws varied from state to state, but generally prohibited state officials from issuing a marriage license. For example, California's law said, "All marriages of white persons with Negroes, Mongolians, members of the Malay race, or mulattoes are illegal and void and no license may be issued authorizing the marriage of a white person with a Negro, mulatto, Mongolian or member of the Malay race". In the Loving case, the Virginia statute classified miscegenation as a felony. The Lovings had gone to Washington D.C. to get married and actually had police officers burst into their home to catch them sleeping in bed together in order to establish a violation of the statute. They were each sentenced to one year in prison and the sentence was suspended on the condition that they leave Virginia. They moved to D.C. and sued, which led to the landmark Supreme Court decision. The Virginia law was actually called the "Racial Integrity Act" and banned any marriage between a person who was white and person who was "non-white" defining the latter using the so-called "one drop rule" meaning that if you had any 'non-white' ancestry then the prohibition applied. That act took effect in 1924 and was in place until the Loving decision in 1967- 102 years after the end of the Civil War and 99 years after the ratification of the 14th Amendment. |
Beatles Albums
Songs on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
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