indeedItIsI: Married couple perhaps, but there is no way that is the first interracial couple in Mississipi.
OrangeDiceHUN: Title says Mississippi, flair says Missouri
DeaconPlayback: Do you know their names? I’d like to know their story.
BigTunaahi: Roger Mills and his new bride, Berta Linson, are all smiles as they leave the church following their wedding in Jackson, Mississippi, Aug. 3, 1970. The interracial marriage marked the end of the state’s anti-miscegenation laws.
BigTunaahi: Background
https://au.org/church-state/december-2010-church-state/featured/bias-in-black-and-white
BigTunaahi: Newlyweds Berta and Roger Mills 6 We don’t advertise/ says biracial couple JACKSON, Miss. Roger and Berta Mills, newlyweds, live in a modest apartment, but only a few close friends know its location. They avoid grocery shopping at peak hours. “We don’t want to advertise,” Mills explains. They have no home phone and their mailing address is the law office where Mills works as a clerk. “We are trying to remain anonymous to avoid as much hate mail or calls as we car,” Mills said. Despite the problems, Mills, who is white, describes his 11-week marriage to Berta Linson, a black, as “a very, very pleasant experience.” “It’s been real smooth. I feel like I’m still on my honeymoon.” Roger and Berta get together socially with four other interracial couples living here, all of whom were married in other states. “The whites I know in Jackson are attorneys and some wealthy people,” Mills said. “It would be a step down for them to visit us where we are.” Despite the problems, Mills said, he regards Mississippi as a “pretty good state.” “Things are progressing. I kind of like Jackson and the state but Berta is fed up with the tension.” He said she is looking forward to moving to Washington next year when he returns to law school at George Washington University. It had a difficult start. Although the U.S. Supreme Court long ago ruled that no slate could prohibit interracial marriages, there was a law in Mississippi banning such unions. It was only after the couple experienced considerable publicity and secured a federal court order that the marriage took place in Jackson’s Central United Church. “Berta hated every minute of it and it caused her a great deal of anguish,” said Mills. Publicity followed them all the way to Gatlinburg, Tenn., where they honeymooned at the foot of the Smoky Mountains. “Everywhere we stopped we saw newspapers carrying stories of the marriage,” Mills said.
Whaddaya Say?