Wow - how things have changed. Now only 2 out of 3 southerners oppose interracial marriage!

It's not just southerners, take a drive into rural areas of the Great Lakes states. A lot of those places are Klan turf. In many respects that area is worse than the south.

This is a pretty amazing stat.

It's just sad to see putting themselves on the wrong side of history by opposing something that will be seen as a matter of course a generation from now.

Thinking 2 out of 3 southerners are racist is just as much backwards thinking as opposing inter-racial relationships. I may not be able to speak for all of the south but Atlanta Ga is one of the more progressive cities I know of as far as race relations. Are there racists in the south? Yes there are, but there are racist East, West, North and South.Don't fool yourself otherwise.

I meant to post this months ago. I guess it belongs here.

[Edited on Feb 23, 2004 by DigitalBath]

94% of Bush's administration opposes same sex marriage. One has to marvel at the speed with which this team of Neanderthals has turned back the clock.

well said

I would say it's pretty much Michigan, especially the UP (Militia Country). My sister is married to a Hispanic man, and we have never had any problems in backass Minnesota or Wisconsin. Can't speak to Ohio.

But, I probably shouldn't have said anything. This is the same kind of generalizing we all hate.

[Edited on Feb 23, 2004 by Runknisse]

Progeny of interracial marriages reprazent, yo!

Thank you so much for this stat. It's one that I, and many other people I know, have been wondering about everytime we hear the latest poll saying that ~60% of Americans are against same-sex marriage. You've just added a little more fuel to my fire, and I appreciate it.

My roomate's parents had to deal with the inter-racial marriage issue over 30 years ago and I can't imagine his parents not being together. Just another example of how scared people are to examine life.

Go SF! Way to keep the world growing!

Wisconsin's had significantly less lynchings, I'm willing to bet.

Any one know if inter-racial marriage licences were issued before they were legal, or did they wait until after the restrictions were removed?

I don't know the specifics of the exact situation, but the landmark case in this situation was Loving vs. Virginia, an inter-racial couple who was married who took the Virginia law banning miscegination to court, getting it over-turned once and for all.

Taken from the USSC Slip Opinion in Loving Vs. Virgina:

In June 1958, two residents of Virginia, Mildred Jeter, a Negro woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were married in the District of Columbia pursuant to its laws. Shortly after their marriage, the Lovings returned to Virginia and established their marital abode in Caroline County. At the October Term, 1958, of the Circuit Court [388 U.S. 1, 3] of Caroline County, a grand jury issued an indictment charging the Lovings with violating Virginia's ban on interracial marriages. On January 6, 1959, the Lovings pleaded guilty to the charge and were sentenced to one year in jail; however, the trial judge suspended the sentence for a period of 25 years on the condition that the Lovings leave the State and not return to Virginia together for 25 years. He stated in an opinion that:

"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."

After their convictions, the Lovings took up residence in the District of Columbia. On November 6, 1963, they filed a motion in the state trial court to vacate the judgment and set aside the sentence on the ground that the statutes which they had violated were repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment. The motion not having been decided by October 28, 1964, the Lovings instituted a class action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia requesting that a three-judge court be convened to declare the Virginia antimiscegenation statutes unconstitutional and to enjoin state officials from enforcing their convictions. On January 22, 1965, the state trial judge denied the motion to vacate the sentences, and the Lovings perfected an appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. On February 11, 1965, the three-judge District Court continued the case to allow the Lovings to present their constitutional claims to the highest state court.

Before any one jumps on my case, I have made it clear that I do not oppose gay marriage in any way, shape, or form. I do hold deep reservations about the actions of this Mayor in how he has gone about challenging the law. Two wrongs never make a right.