Supreme Court ruled that laws prohibiting interracial marriages were unconstitutional in 1967, a reported 72 percent of southern white Americans and 42 percent of northern whites said they supported an outright ban on interracial relationships. Interracial marriage was even illegal in at least 15 U.S.
Less than 3 percent of all marriages were interracial in 1960, and the public generally disapproved of such unions. When Ann Dunham, a white woman, married a black African student, Barack Obama Sr., in 1961, marriage between white and black Americans was rare.
