when was interracial marriage legalized in the us

Interracial marriage became fully legal across the United States on June 12, 1967, after the Supreme Court’s decision in Loving v. Virginia.

Key date and case

• On June 12, 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down Virginia’s law banning interracial marriage in Loving v. Virginia.

• This ruling invalidated similar “anti‑miscegenation” laws in the remaining states that still banned interracial marriage, making such marriages legal nationwide.

Before 1967

• Many states had already repealed their bans earlier, but some mostly in the South still enforced them into the 1960s.

• The Court based its decision on the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses, affirming marriage as a fundamental civil right that cannot be restricted by race.

Why people still ask this

• The question trends often around “Loving Day” on June 12, an annual observance marking the Loving v. Virginia decision and celebrating interracial couples.

• Public opinion has shifted dramatically since 1967, when a majority of Americans opposed interracial marriage, to broad acceptance in recent decades, which keeps the topic active in news, forums, and social discussions.

TL;DR: Interracial marriage was legalized nationwide in the US on June 12, 1967, by the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.