1958 Miscegenation Poll

Via Fabiani, via Atrios:

“In 1958, nine years before the Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that miscegenation laws were unconstitutional, Gallup polled people about interracial marriages.

_____% of whites opposed them?

no cheating.

…and the winner is… 94%!”

So as appalling as it is that half of our society still has a problem with gay marriage, the big picture offers some comfort. 50 years ago, support for gay marriage would not be anywhere close to where it is today. We may not win this round, but the dialog has been advanced tremendously, and society as a whole is slowly waking up to the parallels between homophobia and racism.

We’ll get there. Someday.

Update: Top twelve reasons homosexual marriage should not be legal

Music: Momus :: Team Clermont

3 Replies to “1958 Miscegenation Poll”

  1. One thing that really bothers me about this is the anti-gay rhetoric coming out of a lot of black churches. I *remember* the civil rights movement vividly – I was a kid in Austin, TX in the 60’s. It’s not like it was some sort of history we only read about in a textbook.

    And yet to have the same people who gained so much from this turn their backs on an obvious civil rights issue today just breaks my heart…

  2. “In 1958, nine years before the Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that miscegenation laws were unconstitutional, Gallup polled people about interracial marriages.[…]”

    LOVING v. VIRGINIA, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)
    http://laws.findlaw.com/us/388/1.html

    I should like to see many more specifics on that poll, starting with the exact question(s) Gallup asked. (Since the possibility of a pollster manipulating a result by asking slanted questions is not unheard-of, healthy skepticism is called for.)

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