Daily Almanac for Saturday, November 13, 2021; Day 317 of the Year

On this date in history, amid much controversy, actor Sammy Davis Jr married popular Swedish-born actress May Britt in 1960. By Dell Publishing, 1960. Photographer: Bernard Abramson of Vista, Public Domain, https commons.wikimedia.org

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

In 1960, there was another racially charged public controversy when Davis married white, Swedish-born actress May Britt in a ceremony officiated by Rabbi William M. Kramer at Temple Israel of Hollywood. While interracial marriage had been legal in California since 1948, anti-miscegenation laws in the U.S. still stood in 23 states, and a 1958 opinion poll had found that only four percent of Americans supported marriage between black and white spouses. During 1964–66, Davis received racist hate mail while starring in the Broadway adaptation of Golden Boy, in which his character is in a relationship with a white woman, paralleling his own interracial relationship. At the time Davis appeared in the musical, although New York had no laws against it, debate about interracial marriage was still ongoing in America as Loving v. Virginia was being fought. It was only in 1967, after the musical finished, that anti-miscegenation laws in all states were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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COURTESY www.almanac.com

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