Until 1967, Virginia's law against interracial marriage stated in part:
Anti-miscegenation laws [laws against interracial marriage] date back to colonial times. The first such statute was passed by the Maryland General Assembly in 1691.
Other colonies followed suit. These laws were an American invention. There was no ban on interracial marriage in England at the time. By the late 1800s, 38 states had anti-miscegenation statutes. ...
A number of states updated their anti-miscegenation laws in the 1920s. The Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924 is a good example.
The law remained on the books until 1967, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned it in Loving v. Virginia. The law stated in part:
Section 20-54 of the Virginia Code:
Intermarriage prohibited; ... It shall hereafter be unlawful for any white person in this State to marry any save a white person, or a person with no other admixture of blood than white and American Indian. ...
Section 20-59 of the Virginia Code:
Punishment for marriage. — If any white person intermarry with a colored person, or any colored person intermarry with a white person, he shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for not less than one nor more than five years.
— Adapted by permission from Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement ($29.95)
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