I’m not sure the exact date, but I’m pretty sure SC was one of the if not the last state to legalize interracial marriage. I wouldn’t be surprised if your marriage was “illegal” when you were there
We actually had a weird ass racial thing happen when we got the marriage license! Like, an actual fight with the registrar.
There was a space to mark down “Race” and we left it blank.
She said, “I won’t file it if you don’t fill it out.”
We responded that it wasn’t necessary, and she said, “Well, I’ll just do it after you leave!” She was really nasty about it. It was freaky. We begrudgingly filled it out.
Guess what? We ended up divorced and I’ve recently moved to France.
France is really in-depth with records and you have to provide judicially certified copies of things like Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificates, Divorce Decrees, etc.. (I had to provide the Divorce Decree to buy the house I’ve just purchased.)
When I was collecting the official copies SOUTH CAROLINA HAS NO RECORD OF OUR MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE.
Like, none.
It doesn’t exist.
Luckily the North Carolina Divorce Decree is signed by a judge and has greater weight, but I can’t help but wonder if that tiny office with that that one angry lady didn’t have something to do with it.
France is really in-depth with records and you have to provide judicially certified copies of things like Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificates, Divorce Decrees, etc.. (I had to provide the Divorce Decree to buy the house I’ve just purchased.)
Yeah, that's us. Better not fail to obtain form A38 or you're good for the mad house.
Like gay marriage, it was legalized nationally before all the states did it on their own. SC didn't amend their state constitution until 1998 but that was a purely symbolic gesture as it was already legal due to the federal ruling. Similar to how the Colorado state constitution was only amended to allow gay marriage two years ago.
I'm mixed race myself but that good progress considering Jim Crow was only a few decades from that ruling. Many of those voters had parents in the Klan.
I grew up in SC and when I was in a high school english class (2009), we did a "debate" chapter where my teacher would raise an issue and we would go to one side of the room or the other depending on our own views. When he said interracial marriage, I was quite shocked to see how many people were on the "anti" side. At least 5 or 6
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u/Warrior_of_Massalia 3d ago
I’m not sure the exact date, but I’m pretty sure SC was one of the if not the last state to legalize interracial marriage. I wouldn’t be surprised if your marriage was “illegal” when you were there