September 20, 1664 Maryland enacted the first Anti-Amalgamation Law to specifically outlaw marriage between black men and white women. Soon after, similar laws were passed in a number of other colonies. Prior to the laws, interracial marriages were fairly common between white indentured servants and enslaved blacks. It was not until the 1960s that the United States Supreme Court, in the Loving vs. Virginia case, declared all such laws unconstitutional and not until 2000 that Alabama became the last state to eliminate its law banning interracial marriages.
