"Marriage is regulated at the state level, as it always has been, and as it should be. Just like abortion, car insurance and a thousand other things."
Vernon:
Civil rights are regulated at the Federal level, as it always has been, and as it should be. And the abortion, car insurance and the "thousand other things" you mention may be regulated at the state level, but their equal availability to all citizens of a state - and from state to state - is Federally guaranteed. You cannot offer insurance to white people and not Asian people for instance, because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
That legislation specified that racial and ethnic minorities were entitled to the same civil rights as anyone else, because the patchwork of state-by-state laws that had existed prior to that time did not guarantee any sort of equality. When President Obama was born to a mixed-race couple, their relationship was "legal" in some states, and "illegal" in others. The ramifications of that are mind-boggling to any thinking person - not that you should worry about my including you in that category.
A black husband or wife could make medical decisions for a white wife or husband in some states, but not in others. A mortgage was subject to standards based on a husband's race: in some states, a black husband could take out an affordable mortgage in a good neighborhood. In other states, no - and at that time, it was a rare wife of any race who had the financial clout to secure a mortgage on her own.
The change fostered by the Act was fought bitterly by people who sounded remarkably like you. "Tradition" was cited, so were "States' Rights." I personally heard discrimination preached from the pulpit, by a Presbyterian minister who cited Joshua 9:27 ("And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the LORD, even unto this day, in the place which he should choose.")
There were plenty of good ole boys and gals who understood that passage to mean that certain people had certain rights, and that others were not entitled to them. They were just certain it gave them the right to kill people like Medgar Evers, that a black activist like him had gotten above a pre-ordained station in life and should be "taught a lesson" that would percolate down to other black people.
Notions and behavior like that are both repellent and illegal today, but as recently as the day JFK was struck down, they were codified in law, custom and social norms.
Get it through your head - the times, they are a-changing.
