Interracial Marriage Since Loving vs Virginia

Mr. Cohen, tell the Court I love my wife, and it is just unfair that I can't live with her in Virginia.
~Richard Loving

15% of marriages in the US in 2010 were of mixed race couples. Mixed race marriages were largely illegal in the United States until the mid 20th century. In 1958, Mildred and Richard Loving, a black woman and white man got married in Washington DC. They were from Virginia, but it was illegal for them to be married in their home state. In 1959 they were sentenced to a year in jail, but were given a suspended sentence on condition they leave the state.



They moved to DC, but in 1963 they filed to have the judgement vacated on 14th amendment grounds because they wanted to return home to Virginia. After a long and rocky road, their case came before the Supreme Court in 1967. The court decided in favor of the Lovings, thereby striking down the anti-miscegnation laws still on the books in 16 remaining states.

Today, 80 to 90 percent of people under age 30 find interracial marriages acceptable. 30 percent of people over 65 find interracial marriages not acceptable. There was no information about people between 30 and 65 available for review.

Interracial marriages have more than tripled in the last 30 years.A  very good article containing the statistics regarding interracial marriage in the US in the last 30 years. From the article:

• The proportion of mixed race couples, regardless of the date of marriage, stood at a record rate of 8.4 percent in 2010, compared with 3.3 percent in 1980.
• Only 11 percent of Americans believe mixed marriages are negative, and 44 percent think they make no difference.
• Fifteen percent of all US marriages were among mixed race couples in 2010, up from 6.7 percent in 1980

After Loving vs Virginia - South Carolina kept it's unenforceable anti-miscegnation law untouched until 1998. Alabama moved into the 20th century at the birth of the 21st removing the ban on interracial marriage in 2000.

Note: Michigan never had anti-miscegnation laws.

Something else I learned: Maryland codified the first anti-miscegenation statue in 1661 (it was a colony then, not a state).