That's the year Mildred Jeter, a Black woman, and Richard Loving, a White man, were married in D.C., only to be arrested upon their return to Virginia under a statute that prohibited Whites from marrying outside their race. Their case, of course, led to Loving v. Virginia, in which the Supreme Court said the Virginia law violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses.
I always though the problem with the law in Virginia was the whole White supremacy bit, not that it came in statutory form. And so I also thought that Loving (coupled with Shelley v. Kraemer) would prohibit, say, a JP from refusing to marry an inter-racial couple . . . in 2009.
A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.
"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."
Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.
Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.
The good JP says he's refused to marry 4 inter-racial couples in his career, all within the past 2 1/2 years.
Jerk.
-Kathleen Bergin
The kids could grow up and do something awful like become the leader of the free world! Or he could end up playing shortstop for the New York Yankees.
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