Louisiana JP Refuses Interracial Couple Marriage License

A justice of the peace in Louisiana refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple, claiming that marriages such as theirs do not last long and stating that he was concerned for any children that the couple may have together.

Keith Bardwell is a justice of the peace in Tangipahoa parish, which is home to a population that is 70 percent white and 30 percent black. It's near the state line with Mississippi. On October 6, 30-year-old Beth Humphrey of Hammond, the main city in Tangipahoa parish, called Mr Bardwell inquiring about a marriage license for herself and her 32-year-old boyfriend Terence McKay. Mr McKay is also from Hammond and the couple have recently returned to Louisiana, Ms Humphrey intending to enroll in the University of New Orleans where she will study for a masters degree in minority politics According to the Guardian Ms Humphrey, who is white and currently works as an account manager for a marketing firm, was told by Mr Bardwell's wife that her husband would not sign a license allowing her to marry Mr McKay, who is black, because he did not do so for interracial couples. At the suggestion of Mrs Bardwell, Ms Humphrey contacted another justice of the peace in the parish and as CNN reports on October 9 Ms Humphrey and Mr McKay, who is a welder, obtained their marriage license. Claiming that conversations he had personally had with both black and white people regarding the subject of interracial marriages, and his own experience of such relationships, had led him to conclude that black society and white society were not accepting of interracial marriages or the children that might be born to a black and white couple, Mr Bardwell nevertheless insisted that he is not a racist and treats everyone equally. He said:

I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way. I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else

Emphasizing again that any children the couple might have would suffer from society's unwillingness to accept the marriage of their parents, Mr Bardwell recalled that he had refused to issue marriage licenses to four other interracial couples during his 34 years as a justice of the peace. Ms Humphrey, who has spoken of both her desire to have a family with Mr McKay and the support she and her boyfriend have received from their friends and co-workers, expressed astonishment that in this day and age she has encountered such an attitude as that displayed by Mr Bardwell, particularly as he is an elected official. CNN quotes her as saying:

We would like him to resign. He doesn't believe he's being racist, but it is racist

The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana has taken the matter up with the state's judiciary committee, stating that Mr Bardwell's "blatant bigotry poses a substantial threat of serious harm to the administration of justice". Whilst Patricia Morris, President of the Tangipahoa Parish branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), stated:

He's an elected public official and one of his duties is to marry people. He doesn't have the right to say he doesn't believe in it. If he doesn't do what his position calls for him to do, he should resign from that position

The Guardian says that Ms Humphrey and Mr McKay are planning to contact the U.S. justice department to discuss the possibility of filing a complaint against Mr Bardwell for discrimination. It was in 1967 that a Supreme Court decision regarding the unconstitutionality of laws prohibiting interracial marriages led to marriages between blacks and whites becoming fully legal in all U.S. states. However, many states had opted to legalize interracial marriage many years before the court decision.