Interracial marriage is legal in Alabama and has been since 1967, when the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Loving v. Virginia struck down every state law restricting marriage by race. Alabama’s own constitutional ban on interracial marriage, however, remained in the written text of the state constitution for another 33 years, and voters didn’t formally remove it until a 2000 referendum. A second cleanup came in 2022, when Alabama voters ratified a recompiled constitution that stripped out the remaining racist language. Federal law now offers an added safeguard: the Respect for Marriage Act, passed in December 2022, bars any state from refusing to recognize a marriage based on race.
What Alabama’s 1901 Constitution Said
Alabama adopted its constitution on September 3, 1901, and Section 102 of Article IV prohibited interracial marriage in unusually absolute terms: “The Legislature shall never pass any law to authorize or legalize any marriage between any white person and a Negro, or descendant of a Negro.”1Justia. Alabama Constitution Section 102 The wording didn’t just outlaw such marriages. It tried to bar the legislature from ever changing the rule, locking the prohibition into the state’s governing document.
The 1901 convention that produced the constitution was organized to disenfranchise Black voters and entrench white supremacy across Alabama’s legal system. The interracial marriage ban sat alongside a mandate for racially separate schools and voter requirements designed to suppress Black political power.2Equal Justice Initiative. Alabama Makes Racial Segregation Mandatory That constitution stayed in force longer than all five of Alabama’s previous constitutions combined.
How Loving v. Virginia Ended the Ban in 1967
In 1967, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decided Loving v. Virginia and struck down every state law banning interracial marriage. The Court held that racial restrictions on marriage violated both the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and it recognized marriage as a fundamental civil right that no state could restrict by racial classification.3Justia. Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1
Because federal constitutional rulings override conflicting state law, Alabama’s Section 102 became unenforceable the moment the decision came down. Probate judges could no longer legally refuse to recognize an interracial marriage. The written text of the Alabama Constitution, though, hadn’t changed, and it wouldn’t for decades.
The 2000 Vote to Remove the Language
The ban had been legally dead since 1967, but the text stayed in the constitution until voters acted. In 2000, Alabama placed Statewide Amendment Number 2 on the general election ballot, proposing to abolish the prohibition on interracial marriages.4Alabama Secretary of State. Proposed Constitutional Amendments The measure passed and was ratified as Amendment 667, which annulled Section 102 of Article IV.5Justia. Alabama Constitution Amendment 667
The result wasn’t close, but it wasn’t overwhelming either. Roughly 59.5% of voters supported removing the ban, while about 40.5% voted to leave the language in place. Four in ten Alabamians voting to keep a provision that had been constitutionally meaningless for more than three decades drew national attention.
The 2022 Constitutional Recompilation
Alabama took another step in November 2022 when voters ratified an entirely recompiled constitution. The Constitution of Alabama 2022 reorganized the state’s governing document and specifically removed all remaining racist language, including any residue of Section 102’s interracial marriage ban and Section 256’s mandate for racially segregated schools. Voters approved the recompilation by 76.5%, replacing the 1901 constitution that had governed Alabama for more than 120 years.
Federal Protection Under the Respect for Marriage Act
Beyond the Fourteenth Amendment protections established in Loving, Congress added a statutory layer in December 2022 by passing the Respect for Marriage Act. The law repealed the Defense of Marriage Act and replaced it with a direct rule: no state official may deny full faith and credit to a marriage from another state based on the race, ethnicity, sex, or national origin of the spouses.6Congress.gov. H.R.8404 Respect for Marriage Act
An interracial couple married in any state now has a federal statutory guarantee that every other state must recognize the marriage. The law also gives the U.S. Attorney General authority to bring civil lawsuits against anyone who violates it, and individual couples have a private right of action to sue on their own behalf.7Congress.gov. H.R.8404 Respect for Marriage Act Interracial marriage was already protected by the Constitution, but the Respect for Marriage Act writes that protection into federal statute as well.
What This Means for Couples in Alabama Today
Every couple in Alabama follows the same marriage process regardless of race. Section 102 no longer exists in the state constitution, no probate judge has legal ground to refuse a marriage on racial lines, and federal law requires Alabama to recognize interracial marriages performed anywhere else in the country. The ban that once sat in Alabama’s founding document is gone from both its text and its force.