So Much Has Changed — and Yet So Little

[Commentary] Tomorrow marks 40 years since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Richard Perry Loving vs. Virginia. The decision overturned laws in 16 primarily southern states that barred interracial marriage.

It’s probably the only Supreme Court decision to have culminated in its own series of national celebrations which cross many economic, social and political lines. In addition to the events scheduled with the help of founder Ken Tanabe, the Association of MultiEthnic Americans has stepped up to the plate to organize the Loving Decision Conference 2007 in Chicago. As some within our nation celebrate the decision — and millions more benefit from it without awareness — it is important to look back at the national sentiment at the time the historic decision was handed down. Unfortunately, much remains familiar.

Before the Loving decision, interracial marriage was considered a felony punishable by up to five years in a state penitentiary. In addition, those who crossed racial lines without taking the final step of marriage were vilified and persecuted.

In the Loving case, a Virginia judge called for the imprisonment of Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Loving, a white man, after they legally married in the District of Columbia and moved to Virginia, where their union was a felony. They were convicted of violating Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law which stated that “if any white person and colored person shall go out of this State, for the purpose of being married, and with the intention of returning… they shall be punished” by “not less than one nor more than five years” in prison. The couple was given the option of leaving state state in lieu of serving jail time. They left and it took nearly 10 years before the ruling was shot down.

The judge’s ruling was rife with religious overtones. For instance, the judge opined God intended separation of the races because when he created them, they were placed in separate places. While hard to believe now, the vast majority of Americans at that time sided with this Virginia judge. They viewed marriage between “whites” and “coloreds” as “unnatural,” “evil,” based on illicit sex in lieu of true respect and commitment and, most importantly, “contrary to God’s will.”

The Supreme Court found marriage to be one of the “vital personal rights” protected under the 14th Amendment. Regardless of that ruling, there are still some Americans who cannot partake in all their “vital personal rights.” The rhetoric used previously to justify withholding marriage rights is hard at work once again.

In the late 1800′s, miscegenation laws were reinstated and expanded after Reconstruction. The justifications used at that time are now being replayed by those who oppose same-sex marriage.

Marriage of racial couples was described as a convenience of “illicit sex” instead of a relationship built on respect and love. Today, same-sex couples are described as having relationships of “mere subjective preferences” with no “moral reason.” Just as interracial marriage was described as contrary to God’s will, same-sex couples now face charges of being “contrary to God’s plan, morally objectionable, and unacceptable.”

Perhaps the phrased used most often to describe interracial and same-sex unions is that they are “unnatural.” Prior to the Loving decision, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled “That connections and alliance so unnatural that God and nature seem to forbid them, should be prohibited by postive law, and be subject to no evasion.” The Georgia courts agreed that such marriages were “not only unnatural, but… always productive of deplorable results. They are productive of evil, and evil only, with any corresponding good.”

Forty years have passed. In that time, nearly all American families have welcomed people of diverse ethnic backgrounds in their circles. We should stop to not only celebrate what has happened in the past, but to consider as individuals what would be missing from our lives without the Loving decision. It is also important for us all to learn from past mistakes and to remember the loudest voice isn’t always saying the right thing.

It’s been 40 years, and yet, it could have only been yesterday.