Knox the Fox didn’t travel this week but did find an amazing story to share with our readers. Having been married in what some deem an interracial marriage for almost 50 years, I was unaware we narrowly missed breaking a Georgia law against interracial marriages by just a few years.
Interracial marriage in the United States has been fully legal in all U.S. states since a 1967 Supreme Court decision that deemed anti-miscegenation state laws unconstitutional due to the 14th Amendment adopted in 1868. Miscegenation is a strange word and is pronounced (/məˌsejəˈnāSH(ə)n) for those of you who remember your English pronunciations. It is defined as: sexual relationships or reproduction between people of different ethnic groups, especially when one of them is white.
The history of the ban against interracial marriage is quite interesting: Miscegenation State Laws. Nine states never had any law of this type. Eleven states repealed such laws before the 14th Amendment was adopted. Fourteen states repealed the law between 1948 and the Supreme Court decision. Then sixteen states, mostly southern with the exception of Delaware, had their laws quashed by the Supreme Court decision of 1967.
How did I get down this rabbit hole? I read a story about singer Chubby Checkers (born Ernest Evans) and his wife, Catharina Loddars, who have been married for nearly 60 years. The African American singer met his future wife who is from the Netherlands and was crowned Miss World in the early ’60s. They married prior to 1967 but in New Jersey which was one of the nine states without a law against interracial marriage. They have four children and seven grandchildren.
Their early story was one of racial discrimination but one of perseverance and a romance that continues today. They struggled to purchase a home due to their interracial marriage but eventually were approved in Paoli, Indiana, and still live there to this day.
A truly beautiful story and one that has been lived within the families of many similarly invincible couples.
As we live in our world today, the struggles and triumphs of these families call us to consider this famous quote by George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I pray we don’t.
All of us have a story and I want to tell yours! Send them to susan@knoxtntoday.com