American Anti-miscegenation (Anti-Mixed Marriage) Laws

The plots of Tartuffe, Candide and Nathan The Wise all revolve around the freedom of individuals to choose who they will marry, regardless of religion, ethnicity or one's own social standing.  We still argue these issues, and largely along the same lines as those argued in the 18th century.

For example:

The 1967 Supreme Court decision on Loving v. Virginia  made American anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional. Until that point, 16 states, all in the South (see below) had laws banning mixed 'race' marriages.  Note also, however, that many other states had only recently overturned their laws.  (For context: Tom was 4 when these laws were repealed, his own parents nearly 30, and Barack Obama was 6 -- his parents' marriage would have been illegal in 20% of the US states when he was born).

However, the last state to still have anti-miscegenation laws on their its constitution was Alabama, when the law was finally voted off by popular election in November 2000 (year Bush was elected president) where it passed with only 60% of the vote.   Amendment: "Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to abolish the prohibition of interracial marriages."

2000 Election Results

Alabama Amendment 2 (2000)
Yes or no	Votes	Percentage
Yes	801,725	59.49%
No	545,933	40.51%
Total votes	1,347,658	100% precincts

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Alabama_Amendment_2_(2000)

Anti-miscegenation laws repealed 1948-1967

Anti-miscegenation laws overturned on 12 June 1967 by Loving v. Virginia