INDICATORS

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INTER-ETHNIC MARRIAGES GROWING

DAVID CRARY, ASSOCIATED PRESS - It was only 40 years ago - on June 12,
1967 - that the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down a Virginia statute
barring whites from marrying non-whites. The decision also overturned
similar bans in 15 other states. Since that landmark Loving v. Virginia
ruling, the number of interracial marriages has soared; for example,
black-white marriages increased from 65,000 in 1970 to 422,000 in 2005,
according to Census Bureau figures. Factoring in all racial
combinations, Stanford University sociologist Michael Rosenfeld
calculates that more than 7% of America's 59 million married couples in
2005 were interracial, compared to less than 2% in 1970. . .

Opinion polls show overwhelming popular support, especially among
younger people, for interracial marriage. . . The boom in interracial
marriages forced the federal government to change its procedures for the
2000 census, allowing Americans for the first time to identify
themselves by more than one racial category. About 6.8 million described
themselves as multiracial 2.4% of the population

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/
2007-04-12-interracial-marriage_N.htm?csp=34


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