The Harry Potter Alliance

By Andrew Slack

October 29, 2008

Interracial Marriage

This article about interracial should be read by everyone. After you read it, go here and sign up.

The article is written by an African American woman who was arrested along with her white husband for an interracial marriage. When they got married, they had no intention of their marriage being political. But once they were arrested she says, “Richard and I had to fight, but still were not fighting for a cause. We were fighting for our love.” And fight they did. All the way to the Supreme Court who in 1967 ruled “unanimously that, ‘The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men,’ a ‘basic civil right.’

One thing that’s so striking about her words is that the judge that sentenced them (and was eventually overturned) said that “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents….the fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”

This woman, whose last name happens to be “Loving” goes on to say: “My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.

“Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the ‘wrong kind of person’ for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation,* should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.” [bold face by me]

History in the US has always eventually moved in the direction of civil rights. Same sex marriage will eventually move in that direction. The time has come for you to ask yourself a question. Fifty years from now, which side of history do you want to be on? The one that used ideology to strip people of their rights and deny them love? Or the one that used spiritual faith and faith in love to allow people to come together? In the end, it is the latter who will win this fight. Please join us, please join our fictional friends in Gryffindor and our real life allies like Mrs. Mildred Loving in that fight. The fight for equality. No on Proposition 8. Sign up to make phone calls today!