Accepting Interracial Marriage Case Study

Accepting Interracial Marriage

In June of 1958 Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were legally married in the District of Columbia (Gale, 2014). This was the beginning of an upward battle for them. The couples hometown in Virginia had passed laws against miscegenation. October of 1958 a jury indicted them. All this couple wanted was to share the love they shared for each other but were stopped because of where they lived. For this couple a happily ever after did not come so easy. They spent the first couple years of their marriage fighting against courts of all sizes to get a verdict in their pleasure. It went all the way to the Supreme Court Chief Justice before it marriage was declared a basic civil right and the

This couple were natives in Virginia but were able to legally marry in their hometown. Shortly after their wedding they returned to their home in Virginia to carry out their everyday life. A short four months later a jury indicted the couple for violating the anti-miscegenation laws in Virginia. The trial judge sentenced them to one year in jail but suspended the sentence for 25 years if the couple would move out of Virginia and not return together (Gale, 2014). The couple moved the District of Columbia and in 1963 filed that there conviction be vacated because the anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional. After actions they were hoping for failed to take place in the lower courts, so they soon appealed to Virginia’s Supreme Court. They affirmed the couple’s conviction and that led the Lovings appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court in April of 1967. “Chief Justice Warren declared marriage a basic civil right and the convictions to be reversed, stating that “Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.””(Gale, 2014). The Loving V. Virginia Case invalidated Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws and all other states where such laws still existed (Gale, 2014). This case made an impact on how interracial marriages were to be treated in the

In 1970 fewer than two percent of marriages in the United States were interracial (Gale, 2014). As the country has grown in population, so has the interest in marriages between different races. In the census taken in 2000 Americans were able to identify themselves as multiracial for the first time (Gale, 2014). “In the 2006 U.S. Census recorded 286,000 marriages between white women and black men” (Gale, 2014). Although the primary race in the U.S. is white, you do not see Caucasians looking to marry the minorities very often. A study done by Cornell University states that Hispanics have the highest rate of interracial marriages in the U.S. (Gale, 2014). When this study was conducted, they found that as people from all races get older they do not seek after interracial relationships as often as young people do. Although the fantasies and dreams of being married and in relationships vary from person to person but overall outlook is to find someone who truly loves you. As the twenty-first century kicked off marriage rates between Asian women and men were higher than ever in the United States. As many as twenty-five percent of Asian women were married to white men (Gale, 2014). The Asian culture raises men to be leaders and to have dominance over women that is not always viewed well women. Asian women tend to feel disrespected and overlooked when they are