Loving Day

June 12 in the United States is Loving Day, the annual commemoration of the Supreme Court decision that struck down antimiscegenation laws, which prevented marriage between blacks and whites, in the sixteen states of the South that still had them on the books.  In honor of that day, this year I am happy to let you know about a New York Times story that my friend and genealogy colleague Nicka Smith contributed research to.

Leon and Rosina Watson of Oakland, California were married in 1950.  According to the Times, they are "among the oldest living interracial couples legally married in the United States."

California's State Supreme Court had only overturned the state's own antimiscegenation laws in 1948 in Perez v. Sharp.  With that decision, the court became the first one of the 20th century to declare that a state antimiscegenation law violated the U.S. Constitution.