One of those “can you believe this” stories from the past two weeks concerns a justice of the peace in Louisiana who denied a marriage license to an interracial couple. He’s wrong to do that, of course, but we’d be making a grave mistake if we decided this was typical of the South, of Louisiana, or of anything other than an isolated case of outmoded (and unbiblical) thinking.
The Associated Press reports that Keith Bardwell, a justice of the peace licensed to marry couples in Tangipahoa Parish (county), La., fielded a telephone call earlier this month from 30-year-old Beth Humphrey inquiring about a marriage license. Bardwell asked if the couple in question was interracial, and Humphrey said yes. Bardwell said he did not perform interracial marriages, but referred her to another justice of the peace nearby who does. The couple is married and it’s severely stretching the point to say they were harmed by Bardwell’s actions.
“I didn’t tell this couple they couldn’t get married,” he said. “I just told them I wouldn’t do it.” Bardwell said he decided some time ago that because biracial children are often ostracized by white and black children alike, he wouldn’t become party to interracial unions. He says he’s declined to marry couples for this reason four times over the course of his career.
Bardwell apparently is breaking state law, which lets anyone with $35 and a birth certificate or a Social Security card get a marriage license (as well as proof of a previous divorce or dissolution, if applicable). We disagree with his position in the strongest possible terms. He should be given the opportunity to change his mind on this matter or forfeit the right serve as justice of the peace. But it seems to us that the good news is that this is a newsworthy story in 2009.
Barring two people from getting married was not only socially acceptable in this nation at one time, it was the law of the land in some locations as late as 1967. Outward racist attitudes and latent ones, like this instance, remain. But let’s not let a situation like this obscure the fact that while much progress toward racial harmony remains to be made, much has already been accomplished.
