Forbidden Marriage: Perez v. Sharp

In 1948, Andrea Perez, a white woman, and Sylvester Davis, an African American man, were denied a marriage license under California’s anti-miscegenation statute. The California Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Perez couple by a narrow margin, 4-3, deeming anti-miscegenation legislation unreasonable and unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment. With the Perez v. Sharp case, California became the first state to repeal its anti-miscegenation laws following the Pace decision.

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