The interracial marriage prohibition is deeply rooted in our Nation’s history and tradition. Statutes prohibiting interracial marriage were enforced in American colonies and states for more than three centuries.
The first anti-miscegenation law was enacted in Maryland in 1661. Virginia followed suit soon after. [Only Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alaska, Hawaii, and Washington, D.C. never enacted anti-miscegenation laws.]
Interracial marriage was so far outside of the realm of traditional marriage in colonial America that Virginia amended its anti-miscegenation law in 1691 to banish from the community any white person who married a “negro,” “mulatto,” or Indian.
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