Obama is the son of a white mother and a black father. Before last Tuesday’s primary in Alabama and Mississippi, A poll conducted by Public Policy Polling revealed that 21% of Alabama republicans and 29% of Mississippi republicans believe interracial marriage should be illegal.
In 1967 the Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, was unconstitutional. This courts ruling struck down against interracial marriage bans that existed in 16 states including Alabama and Mississippi. However, Alabama kept the interracial marriage ban. Alabama did not repeal the law until 2000 by referendum.
I remember Professor Pitney mentioned that when the Supreme Court rules something unconstitutional, it doesn't immediately strike the statute from the books; it just makes it unenforceable. Perhaps this was the same sort of thing, and Alabama just didn't get around to it until 2000.
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