Wanting Liang (Fanny)
WSEM 196-002T
Professor Mary Richardson
14th December 2012

Influence of The Civil Rights Movement On Black/White Marriage

INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, interracial marriage exists in almost the whole world and is more acceptable than it ever has been. In the United States, which now has its first biracial president-Barack Hussein Obama II. Absolute numbers tell us the fact that interracial marriage between black and white has increased -- the U.S. Census reported that there were 51,000 Black/White marital couples in 1960, which was legal in whatever many states. By 2002, it rose to 395,000 Black/White marriages (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2004). By 2010, it grew more to 540,000 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2012. However, before the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, this would have been unimaginable. It was illegal for people with different race to marry before the Civil Rights Movement, which we called “anti-miscegenation laws”.
This paper will examine how the Civil Rights Movement helped make marriages between blacks and whites and mixed-race families acceptable to society and more common. In this paper, I am going to provide the background about the Civil Rights Movement. Such as ways this movement affected Black/White marriage, and the Loving vs. Virginia (the Supreme Court Case). Then, I will introduce some family stories in biracial families during 1960s and a number of findings about Black/White marriage. At last, I will present the difference between 1960s and nowadays and express the current situation of Black/White marriage.

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT The Civil Rights Movement in the United States includes noted legislation and organized efforts to abolish public and private acts of racial discrimination African Americans and other disadvantaged groups from 1954 to 1968, especially in the southern part of the United States. In Rod Bush’s article “The Civil Rights Movement and the Continuing Struggle for the Redemption of American”, he explain the effects of the Civil Rights Movement on the rebellion of the 1960s, economic restructuring, Black labor, race problem and class formation. (Rod Bush, 2003) The Civil Rights Movement in the United States played an essential role, which brought numbers of advantages or positive factors, in the development of Black/White marriages. Thus the Civil Rights Movement was born during a period of worldwide decolonization. In this period, the British, French, and Dutch empires collapsed and new nations emerged that were composed of people of color (Rod Bush, 2003: 48). Americans exercised the influence of new nations. They were forced to adapt the civil right.
Moreover, after the Civil War, Americans realized the equality of everyone and caused the Civil Rights Movement. In the movement, Americans struggle to eliminate discrimination of Blacks. In fact, the Civil Rights Movement fuzzed the race border and reduced racial isolation, which is beneficial for interracial marriage. According to the Civil Rights Movement, media kept reporting the blurring of boundaries between racial and ethnic groups. As a result, there has been a tremendous increase in interracial dating and marriage in the past several decades. In David Heer’s investigation, we can figure our there was a 26% increase in the number of Black/ White marriages from 1960 to 1970, during the time of the Civil Rights Movement (David, 1974). Moreover, the incidence of Black/White marriage is increasing. According to the Table 1 in Richard and Joanne’s article, they stated that: “during the period 1980 to 2007, the White composition declined from 81% to about 66% of the population. The African American population portion remained relatively stable at 12% (Richard and Joanne, 2012: 413)”.
There is a famous case involved in the Civil Rights Movement, which called Loving vs. Virginia (Supreme Court Case). It handed down in 1967 and was a key event in the United States’ history. The Supreme Court case declared Virginia’s anti-miscegenation statute unconstitutional and ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States. There is a film “The Loving Story” talked about the case in Virginia. The Loving Story is a story of love and the struggle for dignity set against a backdrop of historic anti-miscegenation sentiments in the U.S. In this film, an interracial couple fell in love and married at a critical time in American history, and, because of an unfortunate confluence of social and political turbulence. However, two young and ambitious lawyers who are driven to pave the way for Civil Rights and social justice through an historic Supreme Court ruling, changing the country's story forever. Carol Shepherd McClain states that: “The broader social acceptance of interracial romance saw it s beginning in the early to mid-1960s, before the 1967 Supreme Court decision in Loving vs. Virginia, and coincident with the major advances of the civil rights movement. (McClain, 2012: 9)”

SOCIETAL PHENOMENA
Even the Civil Rights Movement affected Black/White marriages positively; interracial was still not common during in 1960s as nowadays. The difference of interracial marriages between 1960s and now are so great. Carol Shepherd McClain had some findings about societal phenomena, which were illustrated by some Black/White marriage stories during 1960s. The findings divided into four major categories. Firstly, white parents rejected their children for marrying a Black, but recanted their first grandchild. Secondly, black families were easier to accept the Black/White marriage. Thirdly, spouse in the interracial marriage sustained an “insider-outsider” status in the receiving family. Fourthly, there is difference of acceptance of the interracial marriage by relatives of the White spouse-siblings supported mostly and parents supported least (McClain, 2012: 15). The narrative related to the first finding was happened in LuAnn’s family. Her family had five members: Black father, White mother, two siblings and her. Her parents’ wedding was without the blessing and attendance of her mother’s father. However, after her older brother was born, her grandfather involved in their lives a lot and became hospital and supportive to them. For example, when LuAnn went to Boston University, her grandfather said: “Don’s let anybody try to tell you any different, you’re perfect just the way you are. (McClain, 2012: 15)” Grandchildren play an essential role in their grandparents’ opinions of their parents. In China, even parents of the spouse don’t support the marriage, if they have grandchildren, everything will be in a different way. With grandchildren, grandparents will be more patient and tolerant. The following story is about the second finding. Irene, who was the only child in a southern Black family, married her white fiancé in 1964. His father, Tom, tried to prevent the marriage of them and remained angry for a few years. He felt so shamed that his son married a Black woman. Compared to Tom, Irene’s father was more acceptable, even he (McClain, 2012: 16). The Black family was easier to accept the interracial marriage than the White family. Even in the same family, parents had different opinions. Such as Tom’s wife supported Irene and her son’s marriage very much and treated Irene like her daughter. However, it still took a lot of braveness for interracial couples to against families’ wished and depended on their mates. Interracial families often moved back and forth between different ethno racial communities. White spouse in these multiracial families worked as “outsiders-within” (McClain, 2012: 18). In Terri Karis’ research about White mothers of multiracial children: even they still had white skin, they experienced that discrimination, prejudice, and racism “rebounded” on them because they married with Black men. When they saw how people hurt who they loved or treated them different after marriage, racism became consciously relevant in their lives (Karis, 2004: 163). Moreover, Joyce, a White woman in a Black family, heard a large amount of conversations about how bad White people were. She knew that her family was not specifically directed at her, but she still felt uncomfortable since her racial privilege became a liability. But not only White spouses would be an outsider-within, but also Black spouses, when they struggled fro acceptance by their White in-laws (McClain, 2012: 18). When Irene and her husband received a lot of disagreement from their parents, her husband’s brother in-law, who was the best man in their wedding, supported them a lot with friendship and assistance. When Irene’s first child was born, her brother was studied in Germany, but he asked Irene sent him the tape with baby’s cry and laughter (McClain, 2012: 19). Compared to parents, other relatives, such as siblings, are easier to accept the interracial marriages and become the force behind them.

CURRENT SITUATION OF BLACK/WHITE MARRIAGE Interracial marriage is a very common term in current time. Besides the Civil War and Civil Rights Movement, there are other factors that involved in interracial marriages, especially for now. For example, the opening minds about race and education.
On one hand, the mind of U.S. public changed so that discrimination diminished a lot. In this case, black race has more opportunities to participate in white society. That means blacks and whites communicate with each other more frequently, and there is higher chance they marry each other. On the other hand, since the U.S. society became more and more open, black race can attend college and have a wonderful campus life, or they can choose various jobs. The statistic in Firmin, Michael and Stephanie’s “Historical Analysis of College Campus Interracial Dating” shows us an interesting finding from the Knox et al 2000 survey: nearly one quarter of 620 students reported being willing to interracially date and half of them were previously interracially dating. Moreover 60% of college student in the sample told us they had lived with partners who were open to interracial relationships (Firmin, Michael W., and Stephanie, 2012).
Margaret O’ Donoghue has a statistic that the number of interracial marriage in the United States increased form 5000,000 in 1970 to 2 million in 1990. Specific to Black/White marriage, there are 26% involve in the number in 1990 (Margaret, 2012, 68). The number in 2012 must be much larger since the trend of Black/White marriage is positively increasing. However, other interracial marriages, except Black/White marriage, become more acceptable, too. Moreover, three or more mixed-race combination exists. If a Black and White mixed-race male married an Asian female, their child would be a three mixed- race child.

CONCLUSION The beginning of Black/White marriage in the United States was the Civil Rights Movement. The inflection point of interracial marriage was Loving vs. Virginia case. The number of Black/White marriage has been increasing. All these changes were because of the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement achieved current United States, which country concentrates on equality and fair. After the Civil Rights Movement, people in the United States decreased or eliminated discrimination of black race, and Black/White marriage is more acceptable. Even though Black/White marriage is more acceptable after the Civil Rights Movement, it was not common enough just after the Civil Rights Movement. That period had some special phenomena, which I presented with some stories from biracial families in 1960s. And there were a number of interesting finding about the Black/White marriage. Different from interracial marriage in 1960s, current situation is more complicated, because there is not only biracial marriage, but also multiracial marriage that is three or more mixed-race combination. The racial identities of multiracial people now or in the future may be complex and become an attractive study topic of biologists. No matter bad or good, Black/White marriage is a symbol of human and society development in the United States. Black/White marriage is more popular should thank to the Civil Rights Movement, since it has an unimaginable influence on in.

WORK CITES 1. Bush, Rod. "The Civil Rights Movement And The Continuing Struggle For The Redemption Of America." Social Justice 30.1 (2003): 42-66. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. 2. Heer, D. M.. Prevalence of Black-White marriage in the United States, 1960 and 1970. Journal of Marriage and Family, 36, 246-258. 1974. 3. Lewis, Richard, and Joanne Ford-Robertson. "Understanding The Occurrence Of Interracial Marriage In The United States Through Differential Assimilation." Journal Of Black Studies 41.2 (2010): 405-420. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. 4. McCLAIN, CAROL SHEPHERD. "Family Stories: Black/White Marriage During The 1960S." Western Journal Of Black Studies 35.1 (2011): 9-21. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Dec. 2012. 5. Karis, T.A. prefer to speak of culture: White mothers of multiracial children. In H. Dalmage, Ed., The Politics of Mul iracialism: Challenging Racial Thinking, 161-174. NY: SUNY Press. Jan. 2004 6. Firmin, Michael W., and Stephanie Firebaugh. "Historical Analysis Of College Campus Interracial Dating." College Student Journal 42.3 (2008): 782-788. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Dec. 2012. 7. O' Donoghue, Margaret. "Racial And Ethnic Identity Development In White Mothers Of Biracial, Black-White Children." Affilia: Journal Of Women & Social Work 19.1 (2004): 68-84. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Oct. 2012.