I saw this headline on the news wires yesterday and I assumed it was a mistake. I didn’t even read the story because this is 2009, not 1909!
Unbelievably, a justice of the peace in a hick town in Louisiana denied an interracial couple a marriage license, in part, to protect the couple’s unborn children!!
Mr. Terence McKay and Miss Beth Humphrey both residents of Tangipahoa Parish were crushed and highly disappointed that based upon the color of their skin, that an official of Louisiana would deny their union in Holy matrimony. The couple was told by Mr. Bardell that 99 percent of interracial marriages ended up in divorce and that the decision not to marry them would be in their best interest and the best interest of any future children that would be born from their union. Read more…
The NAACP in that area is asking Keith Bardwell to step down from his position. Bardwell countered by saying, in his experience, interracial marriages don’t last. Then he threw out that a typical racist excuse, such as “I have black friends” — you know, the line that all rednecks keep handy for just this sort of occasion:
“I’m not a racist. I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house,” Bardwell said. “My main concern is for the children.”
He is so gone.
