Believe it or not, it wasn't until 1967 that the Supreme Court made it illegal to make interracial marriages a crime. Some states already had opened the door, but most of the country still clung to the notion of "racial purity".
In 1960, there were approximately 25,000 black husbands with white wives, and 26,000 white husbands with black wives. Ten years later, the number of black husbands with white wives nearly doubled, but the total actually went down for white husbands with black wives.... that doesn't make sense to me.
And get this - in another ten years, the number of black men marrying white women nearly doubled again; meanwhile the number of white men with black wives was only 1,000 more than before it was decriminalized in 1960!
For some reason, between 1980 and 1990 the number finally starts to move up. The number triples to 75,000 in 1990. As usual, the black man to white woman marriage continues to steadily increases to 156,000.
So, where are we today? Well, the 2010 census statistics show 390,000 black men married to white women, and 168,000 white men married to black women. It would appear Generation X, who would be getting married around 1990-2010, are more open to it than the previous generations.
Why do I bring this up? Well, I find it interesting that the B/M - W/F marriage has far outnumbered the W/M - B/F marriage since day one. What's going on here? Are B/M and W/F able to look past skin color; whereas, the W/M and B/F still have hang-ups? It would certainly seem to be the case.
It's interesting question, and I'd be curious to hear your own theories.
