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It wasn't that long ago that there were laws (in the United States) that stated people of different races were not allowed to marry. 16 states had those laws up to 1967.
Virginia was one of them. In 1959 a white man and a black woman (who had been married in the District of Columbia) were arrested as they slept in their home and were convicted of a felony, getting one year in prison with the sentence suspended for 25 years so long as the couple left the State. The presiding judge stated this at the trial;
"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."
The couple moved to D.C. and filed a motion that eventually reached the Supreme Court and in 1967 Loving vs Virginia stated that race-based legal restrictions on marriage was unconstitutional, in a 9-0 vote.
Not that long ago, less than a lifetime in fact, and people were not being granted, what the Supreme Court decided, was their constitutional rights. I hope this case ends the same as Loving...cause the world could use as much Loving as it can get nowadays!
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