October 2, 2019
Davis Knight, a 23-year-old Navy veteran, lights a cigarette in Ellisville, Miss., on Dec. 19, 1948. Knight was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison on a charge that he committed miscegenation by marrying a white woman. Until 1967, Mississippi law prohibited interracial marriages involving a white person and anyone with one-eighth or more black heritage. The state contended that Knight’s great grandmother was black. (AP Photo)
Stories this photo appears in:
Civil Rights
The Thin Line Between LGBT and Racist Hate
Echoes of Mississippi's discriminatory history continue to make themselves heard, sometimes in the form of so-called "religious liberty" laws that give businesses and organization wide berth to invoke their religion …
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