Interracial Couple Denied Marriage License By Louisiana Judge

[coyoteblack]

HAMMOND, La. — A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.
Neither Bardwell nor the couple immediately returned phone calls from The Associated Press. But Bardwell told the Daily Star of Hammond that he was not a racist.


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/15/interracial-couple-denied_n_322784.html

Damn it's getting like this now two steps forward and 50 steps backwards.

[Streetsweepa]

Well, I guess I cant get married in Louisiana........

[coyoteblack]

Well, I guess I cant get married in Louisiana........LMAO

[Bishop]

Amazing. Regardless how things change, they always remain the same.

[LukeKage]

That was a quote i heard on The Wire

[sLam]

I wonder if the same judge would deny a marriage license for an ugly couple....out of concern for what the children may look like.

[Bishop]

I wonder if the same judge would deny a marriage license for an ugly couple....out of concern for what the children may look like.

Good point but some how I doubt this judge would care as long as it was no race mixing involved.

Check out the rest of the article:

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.

Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.

"There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage," Bardwell said. "I think those children suffer and I won't help put them through it."

If he did an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.

"I try to treat everyone equally," he said.

Bardwell estimates that he has refused to marry about four couples during his career, all in the past 2 1/2 years.


Are we going backwards in time or what? Race is still a big problem but my suggestion is if a couple loves each other and they happen to be of opposite "cultures", LEAVE TANGIPAHOA PARISH!

[tiffgam]

:[ this kind of crap makes me so sad.....

[Cizzle]

Wow...I'm so ashamed of my state when I hear shit like this.

[Juss]

Louisiana's Racism is so blatant

[coyoteblack]

He might not be a judge for long.

AP) NEW ORLEANS — Two civil and constitutional rights organizations called on a Louisiana justice of the peace to resign Friday after he refused to marry an interracial couple, saying any children the couple might have would suffer. The leaders of the American Civil Liberties Union in Louisiana and the Center for Constitutional Rights and Justice in New York said Keith Bardwell, a white justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish in the southeastern part of the state, should quit immediately. Earlier this month, Bardwell refused to issue a marriage license to Beth Humphrey, who is white, and Terence McKay, who is black.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) also called for Bardwell's dismissal. "I am deeply disturbed by Justice Bardwell's practices and comments concerning interracial marriages," she said. "Not only does his decision directly contradict Supreme Court rulings, it is an example of the ugly bigotry that divided our country for too long. I call upon the Louisiana Judiciary Committee to use its authority to have Justice Bardwell dismissed from his position. He clearly has no intention of administering the law or upholding justice for interracial couples."
"Perhaps he's worried the kids will grow up and be president," said Bill Quigley, director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Justice, referring to President Barack Obama, the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas.
Obama's deputy press secretary Bill Burton echoed those sentiments.
"I've found that actually the children of biracial couples can do pretty good," Burton told reporters aboard Air Force One as it flew to Texas.
Marjorie Esman of the ACLU said the group was calling on Bardwell to resign "before he infringes on the constitutional rights of another person."
Bardwell did not return calls left on his answering machine Friday. He has said he always asks if a couple is interracial and, if they are, refers them to another justice of the peace.
Story continues below http://www.huffingtonpost.com/images/v/darr.gif


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/16/landrieu-keith-bardwell-s_n_324361.html

[j_da_que]

"I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom."
Wow. Those are the worst kind of racists, the ones that think they aren't.

[PrincessKris]

THATS A DAMN SHAME !!!!!

HUGS AND KISSES
PRINCESSKRIS

[TJ870]

This Country's Racism is so blatant

fixed

[Q-ROCK]

ONLY IN LOUISIANA...............WHERE A JUDGE THINK IT'S OK TO DO THIS KIND OF SHIT...AND THINK THAT LETTING BLACK FOLKS USE HIS BATHROOM IS A THINK TO BE PROUD OF.:dotsign:

[Thundernine]

My thinking is that Tangipahoa isn't that far from David Duke's stomping grounds. That part of the state isn't concerned at all about pretending to be "unbiased".
Hey, dude! The 50's called. They want their perspective back.

The Dream