Any guesses as to when it finally happened? 1970? 1980?! All reasonable answers, but no, Alabama legalized mixed-marriages in 2000! Tony Pace, an African American man, and Mary Cox, a Caucasian lady, were arrested in 1881 because their sexual relationship violated the Alabama’s anti-miscegenation statute. In 1883, Pace’s lawyer took the case, Pace v. Alabama, to the United States’ Supreme Court. This was one of the first attempts to overturn the law against interracial marriage.
However, the Supreme Court affirmed that the state’s anti-miscegenation statute was constitutional. So, the ban against different-race marriage continued in Alabama and the rest of the United States, until the United States finally legalized it with the case of Loving v. Virginia in 1967.
Every state had gotten rid of their anti-mixed marriage laws in the first couple years of this ruling, but Alabama held on to its’ for about 3 decades! Section 102 of the Alabama State Constitution stated; "The legislature shall never pass any law to authorize or legalize any marriage between any white person and a Negro or descendant of a Negro."
House leaders had blocked any attempt to remove Section 102, but in 2000, voters finally had to opportunity to remove the prehistoric clause. 59% of them supporting removing section 102. Now this is great, but one can’t help but think that that’s only a little more than half the population.