Anachronistic Race Rules

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. “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.” His remarks outraged Beth Humphery and Terence McKay, whom he refused to marry. “This [is] so unbelievable,” Humphrey told the Huffington Post. “It’s not something you expect in this day and age.”