Miscegenation laws which regulate marital & sexual relationships between persons of mixed races have existed in the US as early as the 1600’s beginning with the colonies of Virginia and Maryland. Seaborn Roddenbery, a Georgia Democrat, proposed a miscegenation amendment before the House in 1912 & 1913 stating among other things “Let us uproot and exterminate now this debasing, ultra-demoralizing, un-American and inhuman leprosy—Congressional Record, 62d. Congr., 3d. Sess., December 11, 1912, pp. 502–503.”
In 1935 the National Socialist government enacted a miscegenation statute as part of the Nuremberg Laws of which the German title for the precise law translates into English as “The Protection of German Blood and German Honor Act.” Under Apartheid South Africa passed its Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act in 1949 and the Immorality Act of 1950. Egypt reviews all marriages between Egyptian men and Israeli women on an individual basis to decide whether to strip the men of their Egyptian citizenship. Saudi women are prohibited from marrying outside of the GCC (Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf) countries except with special dispensation from the king. Even today, same to same or same to different race, Same-Sex Mariage is still a penalty of death in some countries.
Fortunately, people’s common sense inevitably challenges such laws and causes their demise just as Richard and Mildred Loving would even if they had not intended to do so when they married on June 2, 1958. After marrying in Washington D.C. they returned to their home state Virginia in which their mixed marriage was illegal. In the very early hours of July 14, 1958 they were awakened in their bed by a sheriff’s flashlight and taken into custody. Sentenced to one year in prison, it was suspended for 25 years on the condition the Loving’s leave the state.
A country girl at heart, Mildred was unhappy living in the D.C and being unable to travel together to Virginia to visit relatives, Mildred wrote to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy who wrote referring her to the American Civil Liberties Union. To make a long legal story short, their case, Loving v. Virginia, culminated in the US Supreme Court which on June 12, 1967 unanimously overturned their convictions and ruled that the anti-miscegenation statute violated both the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
On the 40th anniversary of Loving vs. Virginia Supreme Court decision Mildred stated:
“My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone, they have a right to marry.
Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the ‘wrong kind of person’ for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.
I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight, seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.”
The good news is peoples prejudices and archaic beliefs can and do die with them, leaving newer generations to forge pathways to greater equal protection and freedom of choice for all humans. As it was with miscegenation so it will be with abortion rights, gay marriage and many other human rights presently denied. Eventually the time will come when all will see the only truly peaceful way to live is when we see each other as equals, no more judgments against one another but for one another.
If We the People give the WUF a chance, we’ll all see how quickly this can come. However, until the people in power who are the older generation’s fears and prejudices, finally give way and see things as the young people of today do or are at least persuaded to vote and act that way, meaning, if someone else thinks differently, then that person has just as much right to pursue their happiness just like they do, then these archaic laws will continue to take generations to change instead of days… at least we know, eventually, sooner or later, they will be changed!
Personal Conclusions Today; Global Conculsions Tomorrow
President Obama today announced that he now supports same-sex marriage, reversing his longstanding opposition amid growing pressure from the Democratic base and even his own vice president.
In an interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts, the president described his thought process as an “evolution” that led him to this decision, based on conversations with his staff members, openly gay and lesbian service members, and his wife and daughters.
“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together; when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told Roberts in an interview to appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday.
The president stressed that this is a personal position, and that he still supports the concept of states’ deciding the issue on their own. But he said he’s confident that more Americans will grow comfortable with gays and lesbians getting married, citing his own daughters’ comfort with the concept.
“It’s interesting, some of this is also generational,” the president continued. “You know when I go to college campuses, sometimes I talk to college Republicans who think that I have terrible policies on the economy, on foreign policy, but are very clear that when it comes to same-sex equality or, you know, sexual orientation, that they believe in equality. They are much more comfortable with it. You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we’re talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. It doesn’t make sense to them and, frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.”
How nice it would be to truly let all our fellow neighbors live free and in a way that made them happy without having to comply with the rights of the democracy in being forced to be someone they are not- the right to be with another human being should not be something the majority gets to dictate to others but should be available for anyone and everyone to choose for themselves how they will live their lives- doing so would make this a better world – and far less hate. This world will never be at peace until we make peace with one another.