Trailblazing Relationships That Changed Interracial Marriage Taboos

Andrew King, a Missouri representative, proposed a constitutional amendment after the Civil War.That amendment aimed to ban marriage between whites and people of color.In 1871, a law banned marriage between white people and people of color. That law failed then. Ten years later, a Black man named Tony Pace and a white woman named Mary J. Cox were...Police arrested Tony Pace and Mary J. Cox in Alabama.The law there was so broad. The couple did not need to be married to violate the law.The couple violated the law.The court sentenced both to two years in prison for the crime.

The couple appealed the conviction to the Supreme Court.The couple appealed in Pace v. Alabama.The court ruled the law was not discriminatory. Both received the same prison sentence regardless of race. This ruling stood for over 80 years.

I Love Lucy caused network turmoil.I Love Lucy is an iconic TV show. Bigotry nearly stopped it. Lucy's biographer, Kathleen Brady, states the network did not want Lucy's husband Desi Ricardo on the show.The network did not want Lucy's husband Desi Ricardo on the show.CBS and its sponsor, Philip Morris cigarettes, opposed the marriage. They claimed the American public would not accept Desi as the husband of a white girl. Lucille Ball ignored them; Lucy and Desi became household names.

CBS worried and insisted on twin beds.CBS insisted on twin beds in the Ricardo bedroom.In the Ricardo bedroom, the network outlawed the word "pregnancy" in the episode where Lucy found out she was expecting.The show's premiere was in 1951.The show's premiere in 1951 featured an interracial couple. Racists accepted the marriage because of Arnaz's European heritage.

Entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr. challenged social conventions.Sammy Davis, Jr. challenged social conventions.Sammy Davis, Jr. married Swedish actress May Britt in 1960. Their marriage was illegal in 31 states. John F. Kennedy asked the couple not to appear at his inauguration due to fears of backlash from white Southerners.

The pair faced a backlash.20th Century Fox dropped Britt because of the interracial relationship.Sammy Davis, Jr. and his Swedish wife challenged social rules. Because of their interracial relationship and their daughter, Tracey, says Sammy Davis, Jr. worried about the future for biracial children. "What will the world be like for Tracey? What will our legacy be for our children? Is it going to be any better."

The couple worked to improve the world. In the 1960s, they worked in the Civil Rights Movement. Sammy joined the 1963 March on Washington. He also refused to perform at segregated nightclubs, which helped integrate clubs in Las Vegas and Miami Beach.

Their name became famous because of Loving v. Virginia.Loving v. VirginiaMildred and Richard Loving began as lovers. Mildred Jeter met Richard Loving in the 1950s while both lived in Virginia. Virginia banned interracial marriage. They crossed to Washington, D.C., to marry in June 1958. Virginia charged the couple with breaking the law. The court sentenced them to one year in jail or a 25-year ban from the state.

The scared couple moved to D.C. They faced arrest again five years later for visiting Mildred's parents. They wrote to Attorney General Robert Kennedy for aid. Years later, their case reached the Supreme Court. On June 12, 1967, the court overturned all bans on interracial marriage. The court declared, "Marriage is one of the 'basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival."

The Supreme Court decision was inLoving v. VirginiaThis ruling affected more than just Mildred and Richard Loving. It impacted thousands of families who simply wanted to exist. No one knew this in 1967, but one of those families became a future president.

WhenAnn Dunhammarried Barack Obama, Sr. in 1961. Their union became legal only because they married in Hawaii, one of only nine states that never banned interracial marriage.nine statesThe two met in a Russian language class at the University of Hawaii. Ann was only 18 years old.

Barack Obama was a boy thenLoving v. VirginiaThe case Loving v. Virginia ruled against interracial marriage bans. This decision allowed interracial families to live across the river from Obama's future home, the White House.interracial familiesto live across the river from Obama's future home—the White House.

PrinceSeretse KhamaSeretse left Botswana for a law degree in London. There, he met his future wife, Ruth Williams. Seretse needed three months to find the courage to ask Ruth out. He invited her to a jazz concert and offered to invite her sister if it would make Ruth feel better. She replied, “I’d love to come—without my sister.” When they married in 1948, Ruth's family disowned her and she lost her job. Seretse faced a ban from returning to Botswana.bannedfrom returning to Botswana.

The British government refused to let Seretse leave due to apartheid South Africa, claiming it would "endanger peace." However, in 1956, Seretse and Ruth traveled to Botswana. Seretse was then elected the first president of the democratic country.

In 1924, the son of a wealthy New York family married a blue-collar woman. Headlines called her "the Daughter of a Colored Man." According to the "one-drop rule," even one drop of African blood made someone Black. Alice Jones, who had at least one Black grandparent, met Kip Rhinelander. Her marriage was short and tragic because the huge scandal forced Kip to divorce Alice. Unfortunately, it worked.

Kip sued Alice, claiming she hid her ancestry and tricked him into thinking she was white during their three-year courtship and marriage. Kip felt shame being publicly linked to a Black woman, driving the trial, as his lawyer stated Kip would not accept "the undying disgrace of an alliance with colored blood."

Alice showed the jury her nude body to prove she never lied about her race. The jury sided with Alice, and she received alimony for Kip for 65 years.

Louis Gregory was a lawyer. Louisa Mathew was an educated woman from England. However, when they married in 1912, a firestorm erupted.Their marriage was illegal.More than half the states banned interracial marriage and deemed it unacceptable nationwide. To avoid public backlash, few people were invited to the wedding. Louis explained, “We do not want any sensational newspaper articles written.”

Their marriage faced hardship. The couple struggled to find a place to live during the time of Jim Crow laws.Jim Crow laws tried to completely separate Black and white people.Louis and Louisa Gregory fought for civil rights but could not travel together. Friends warned the Gregorys not to travel together. When Louis went to the South to fight for civil rights, Louise stayed in New York. The pair did not live to see it through.Loving v. Virginia—Louis died in 1951 after four decades of marriage; Louisa died in 1956.

Most laws against interracial relationships only applied to white and Black couples. The US Supreme Court ruled in 1923 that Asians were not white, despite them being the original "Caucasians" in the case of...US v. Bhagat Singh Thind The Supreme Court decided Asian Indians could not become citizens because only "free whites" could become naturalized citizens.ThindA World War I veteran who fought for the US earned a PhD despite the court ruling he was ineligible for citizenship.

One year earlier, in 1922, the...Cable ActThe Cable Act stripped citizenship from any US citizen who married "an alien ineligible for citizenship," targeting Asian American immigrants. The government then revoked citizenship for Mary Keatinge Das, the wife of a Pakistani-American activist who was a natural-born citizen. Emily Chinn, another citizen who married a Chinese American immigrant, also lost her citizenship.

In 1899, a British composer named...Samuel Coleridge-TaylorSamuel Coleridge-Taylor married Jessie Walmisley. They wed in a parish church in the English countryside, with Samuel's mentor and Jessie's father present to...signthe marriage registration. But this was not...a typical English wedding: Samuel's father moved to London from Sierra Leone, and the Walmisleys were an established English family that strongly opposed the marriage.

Samuel and Jessie were likely the only interracial couple in Croydon, England, that most people saw. Gangs harassed the couple while they walked. Their daughter later said, "When he approached on the street, he held my hand tighter, gripping it until it nearly hurt." Samuel and Jessie kept going; his composing career grew, but he died from pneumonia at age 37. Their two children became famous composers and conductors.

So-called "miscegenation" laws barred whites from marrying non-whites. This idea went back toMaryland's colonial law targeted whites marrying non-whites.from 1664. It warned against "diverse freeborn English women forgetful of their free condition and to the disgrace of our Nation do intermarry with Negro slaves." White women marrying Black men became slaves while their husbands lived.

These laws rested on the racist idea that "race mixing" harmed the white race. Yet, they seldom mentioned interracial marriages not involving whites. George Douglas, white, Hawaiian, and Indian, married Nettie Sparrow, white and Indian. Despite their backgrounds, neither was considered white, sothe marriage did not break anti-miscegenation laws

Beyond laws banning interracial marriage, many states criminalized interracial sex or living together. In 1964, a brave couple from Florida challenged this law, taking the case to the Supreme Court. InMcLaughlin v. Florida, The anonymous couple claimed a state law stopping whites and Blacks from living together was unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court's unanimous decision declared laws banning interracial cohabitation or "fornication" illegal. This directly countered the 1883 case ofPace v. Alabama. Three more years passed before the Supreme Court ruled on interracial marriage.