The Person of One's Choice

Laws prohibiting the intermarriage of whites and Negroes are on the books of 30 states,* have survived every legal test. Last week one of those states changed its mind. California's ban on mixed marriages was declared unconstitutional by a 4-to-3 decision of the state's Supreme Court. Marriage, said the majority opinion, is a fundamental right of free men; and the right to marry includes the right to marry the person of one's choice.

The decision also declared the law contrary "to the fundamental principles of Christianity." This point might become the basis for attacks on other states' laws. The Roman Catholic Church had helped to carry through the legal test, on the grounds that the law abridged the freedom of religion, thus violated the Federal Constitution.

Meantime, olive-skinned Andrea Perez, 23, and tar-skinned Sylvester Davis Jr., 27, who are members of the same Catholic parish, now could (under court order) get the marriage license which had been denied them in Los Angeles more than 14 months ago.

When a Negro entered the University of Arkansas' law school last semester, its trustees decreed absolute segregation, put him in a separate classroom. Several white students asked permission to join him so that they could bone up away from their own crowded classes. This fall the school permitted its only Negro to attend regular classes, but put a railing around his chair. Last week the trustees bowed to student scoffing at this pretense, ordered the barrier removed.

*The states which have no such prohibition: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico, Washington.

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