Anti-miscegenation Statutes

 

Sex and Racism

Strom Thurmond's Daughter

Reflections

 

 Miscegenation: “1. A mixture of different races. 2. Cohabitation, sexual relations, or marriage involving persons of different races.” 

 
In 1967, when the United States Supreme Court ruled Virginia’s anti-miscegenation statute was unconstitutional in Richard Perry Loving et ux., Appellants, v. Virginia, (388 US 1, 18 L ed 2d 1010, 87 S Ct 1817), sixteen states still had these kinds of statutes on their books.   South Carolina did not remove its anti-miscegenation law until November 3, 1998.  Alabama revoked its anti-miscegenation statute in 2000; it was the last state to do so. 

Background of Loving v. Virginia

In June 1958, two residents of Virginia, Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were married in the District of Columbia pursuant to its laws. Shortly after their marriage, the Lovings returned to Virginia and established their marital abode in Caroline County. At the October Term, 1958, the Circuit Court of Caroline County, a grand jury issued an indictment charging the Lovings with violating Virginia’s ban on interracial marriages. On January 6, 1959, the Lovings pleaded guilty to the charge and were sentenced to one year in jail; however, the trial judge suspended the sentence for a period of 25 years on the condition that the Lovings leave the State and not return to Virginia together for 25 years. He stated in an opinion that:

Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.

After their convictions, the Lovings took up residence in the District of Columbia, but they later challenged Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws and won in 1967.