Map - The Leadup to Loving

In 1948, the California Supreme Court ruled in Perez v. Sharp that California’s anti-miscegenation statute violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This made California the first state to repeal its ban on interracial marriage since Ohio did so in 1887 and began a state-by-state campaign to repeal anti-miscegenation laws through courts and legislatures across the country (though, notably, none in the South).

From the time Perez overturned California’s ban on interracial marriage until Loving overturned all the remaining bans, 14 states repealed their anti-miscegenation statutes as part of this state-by-state campaign. The map below shows the progression of this campaign, as well as the remaining state laws which were overturned by the Supreme Court decision in Loving.