Family Stories: Black/White Marriage During the 1960S (Essay‪)‬

Abstract Black/White romance has become increasingly commonplace in the United States in recent years. Primetime television shows and movies frequently present as unremarkable the love affairs between Black men and White women and between Black women and White men. Americans have become accustomed to vicariously experience Black/White interracial intimacy through celebrity liaisons. Polls tell us that Americans are becoming less opposed to interracial dating and marriage than in previous decades (National Opinion Research Center, 2002; Pew Research Center, 2003). Why has interracial love become more accepted in recent years, and, more importantly, why is Black/White interracial sexual intimacy often cast as ordinary at this moment in American life? Just 50 years ago, a Black man in the South risked his life if suspected by Whites of looking the wrong way at a White woman. A White woman faced rejection by her family and disgrace in the eyes of White society for having a child by a Black father. In 1967, when the Supreme Court struck down anti-miscegenation laws, Black/White marriage was still illegal in 17 states (Kennedy, 2000:144).