0:05

You can get a sense of what the world was like

0:07

in nine by looking

0:09

at the covers of Time magazine from

0:11

that year. There's

0:13

Chairman Mao, the communist leader

0:16

of the People's Republic of China whose

0:18

Cultural revolution had plunged

0:21

his country into chaos. General

0:23

William Westmoreland, commander

0:25

of US forces in Vietnam, confident

0:28

of victory in a war that was becoming more

0:30

and more unpopular. Sandy

0:33

Dennis, whose performance and Who's Afraid

0:35

of Virginia Woolfe won her an oscar? And

0:37

newlyweds Margaret Rusk and Guy

0:40

Smith. Okay, I'm pretty

0:42

sure you don't recognize those names.

0:45

Margaret, better known as Peggy, was the

0:47

daughter of then Secretary of State Dean

0:49

Rusk, Guy Smith, her longtime

0:52

love. So why were they on the September

0:55

seven cover of Time? For

0:57

the simple reason that Peggy was white

1:00

and Guy was black. The

1:03

headline reads Mr. And Mrs

1:05

Guy Smith an interracial

1:08

marriage.

1:11

Margaret Elizabeth Rusk, only daughter

1:14

of Secretary of State Dean Rusk, becomes

1:16

the wife of Air Force Reserve Lieutenant Guy

1:18

Gibson Smith, a Negro. Nineteen

1:21

sixty seven, it turned out was a very

1:23

big year for interracial marriage.

1:26

In all the field of race relations,

1:28

probably nothing is more sensitive

1:30

than the issue of inter marriage.

1:32

That June, in the landmark ruling of

1:34

Loving versus Virginia, the Supreme

1:37

Court struck down state laws

1:39

banning it in the United States. Mildred

1:42

and Richard Loving had actually gone

1:44

to jail after getting married. We

1:47

were in it because we got

1:49

married, We loved each other and gotten married. The

1:51

Court's decision was unanimous,

1:54

but only a fifth of Americans actually

1:56

approved of interracial marriage, an

1:58

attitude that Hollywood was about to address

2:01

with a major motion picture. Three

2:03

Academy Award winners and a bright young

2:05

newcomer combine their talents in

2:07

a love story of today.

2:10

In December, the movie Guests Who's

2:12

Coming to Dinner starred Sydney Pottier

2:14

as a black doctor planning to marry

2:16

a white woman and delivering the news

2:19

to his future in laws played by

2:21

Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy

2:24

Mrs Drayton. I'm medically qualified,

2:26

so I hope you wouldn't think it presumptous. If I

2:28

say you want to sit down before you fall

2:30

down, he thinks she's going to faint because he's

2:32

a Negro. Well

2:37

I don't think I'm going to fade in

2:40

the middle of all of this, a very private

2:42

couple thrust into the spotlight.

2:46

Ms. Rusk and Mr Smith had obviously

2:48

thought long and hard about the consequences

2:51

of a mixed marriage, but Peggy

2:53

Rusk Smith says she and her husband

2:55

had only one focus as they walked

2:58

down the aisle. We didn't get

3:00

married for any reason. In the fact that we left

3:02

it to other. We weren't trying to prove anything, change anything.

3:06

Sorry to mean some more in the truth of

3:08

it. But

3:11

the story of her and her late husband

3:13

is anything but boring. It

3:16

involves romance in turbulent

3:18

times, presidents, movie

3:20

stars, and horses. We'll

3:24

hear that story and along the way,

3:26

look back at the surprising history of

3:28

interracial relationships in the United

3:30

States. From

3:33

CBS Sunday Morning and I Heart

3:36

I'm Morocca and this

3:39

is Mobituaries, this

3:44

moment Mr and Mrs

3:46

Smith and the year that

3:49

changed marriage in America.

4:00

You know, I'll tell you a funny story about the dress.

4:02

I've had it cleaned and boxed and sealed,

4:04

so it's still in good shape from when I first

4:07

and I wore it. So I thought,

4:09

well, maybe I should give it to a thrift shop.

4:11

And well, whoever I was speaking to, said, why don't

4:13

you see if the Smithsonian wants it?

4:15

And I said, oh, please, But

4:18

to make them happy, I called him into

4:21

my shock. The Smithsonian

4:23

does want it, Peggy. Of course

4:25

they wanted. This was a big deal. I'm

4:29

going to give it to you straight. Peggy

4:31

Rusk is not the type of person I'm

4:33

used to interviewing. She's the opposite

4:35

of a hype artist. But don't be fooled.

4:38

Her story was remarkable

4:40

for its time. So let's go back

4:42

to when

4:44

Peggy was eleven and her father became

4:47

Secretary of State under President

4:49

John F. Kennedy. Why did

4:51

he accept the job because he was asked.

4:54

The President asked him, and

4:56

he believed, if the President asked you to

4:58

do something, you do it to serve your

5:00

country. Yes, he

5:02

didn't want to, but he was asked. The

5:09

Rusk family quickly transitioned from

5:11

a quiet life in Scarsdale, New York,

5:14

to a busy life of politics and diplomacy

5:16

in Washington, d C. As

5:19

the daughter of America's top diplomat.

5:21

Peggy accompanied her mother to receptions

5:24

at various embassies. So

5:26

I got used to seeing people from all of the

5:29

world, all different nationalities

5:31

and ethnicities and different

5:33

language, different dress,

5:36

difference with normal To me, it

5:38

was an exciting but also kind of a

5:40

lonely time. My parents

5:43

were gone all the time. It

5:45

was very rare for them to be home. She

5:48

threw herself into one of her early loves,

5:50

horseback riding at Washington's

5:53

Rock Creek Park, and it was there,

5:55

at age fourteen, that she found another

5:57

love, Guy Smith, a

6:00

writing instructor at the Stables. Guy

6:03

had grown up in Washington, the only

6:05

child of an analyst working at the Pentagon

6:08

and a teacher. And what was it about

6:10

him? Just from his appearance that immediately

6:12

made you go, WHOA, He's

6:15

cute, what can I say? And

6:18

very sweet, a gentleman

6:21

and friendly open A

6:24

few years older, five years older,

6:27

five years older. The age

6:29

difference didn't seem to face Peggy. She

6:31

emphasizes that their relationship began

6:34

very much as a friendship. In fact,

6:36

she saw a number of similarities between

6:38

Guy's family and her own, as

6:42

mother and father were wonderful, wonderful

6:45

people, very smart,

6:49

um well educated. Their

6:51

house was full of books and

6:54

full of classical music. My father and

6:56

Guy's father were like book heads. Guy's

7:01

parents had sent him to the progressive Georgetown

7:03

Day School, integrated at its founding

7:06

in when d c's

7:08

public schools were still segregated.

7:11

Guy would go on to attend Georgetown

7:13

University. But Peggy also

7:15

acknowledges how race made their

7:17

experiences very different. Guy

7:20

had to travel a good distance from his

7:22

predominantly black neighborhood of

7:24

Ladroit Park just to get to

7:26

the stables each day. It's

7:28

it's sad because as

7:31

our home in Spring Valley was appreciating,

7:34

their home where they lived

7:36

on the other sided, city was depreciating, and

7:39

they couldn't just live anywhere. They

7:41

couldn't buy anywhere, and then probably places

7:44

wouldn't rent to them. To another

7:46

difference between the two where they stood

7:48

politically well. Guy was

7:50

a conservative, he voted for gold

7:52

Water. Guy was a conservative

7:54

Republican right and I was a liberal Democrat.

7:57

But back then

8:00

politics did not color

8:02

your life the way

8:05

for some people now. Things would eventually

8:08

progress between the two. At where

8:10

Else a horse show, the

8:13

show had a pair's event where two

8:15

writers would compete together, and

8:17

Guy had come at the show

8:19

grants and asked me if I would pair

8:21

with him,

8:24

Yeah, that must have been exciting. It

8:26

was exciting. I was like, yes,

8:28

sure, But

8:30

when guy suddenly had to pair with another

8:33

girl in the competition, Peggy

8:35

was crushed and I

8:37

left the show grants and

8:40

started writing, this is

8:43

really a young mind at work. I

8:45

was going to ride until he got dark.

8:48

Have them all worried about what happened,

8:50

especially him, worry about what had

8:52

happened to me. Yes, you

8:54

know, so this is just my payback.

8:58

You would go missing, I would go missing,

9:01

yes, and he would feel guilty. Yes,

9:03

exactly. It

9:07

was a great plan, but unfortunately

9:10

nobody seemed to realize Peggy was

9:12

missing. So I decided, okay, it's time

9:14

to go back to the barn. Right. It was totally dark,

9:17

but no one was there. I

9:19

thought, what, they've

9:22

all come home and not even noticed

9:24

that I wasn't back. They were a horse and they

9:26

all left, and nobody gives

9:28

um. You know what. I took the horse down,

9:30

put him in the stall, and was brushing him with

9:33

the tears rolling down my face. I

9:35

can see it, yes, feeling

9:38

completely unloved by every soul.

9:41

When who should appear? So

9:43

I'm in the corner stall and I hear footsteps

9:47

down, coming down the cement alway,

9:51

and you know I'm going to like this, trying to

9:53

clean my face, wiping your tears.

9:56

I see that you've been crying, right, And

9:58

he gets to the edge of the and he said,

10:02

would you like a ride home? Sure?

10:06

You know this suddenly has gotten great?

10:08

Yes? Really great? Even

10:11

better. On the way home, he

10:14

invited me to go to the

10:16

or showed dinner banquet with him. Did

10:19

you recognize that he was asking as he was

10:21

asking you on a date. Yes, well, to go

10:23

to the banquet,

10:26

okay, yes, But

10:33

before the two would set out on their date,

10:36

Guy felt it was important to get permission

10:38

from Peggy's mother. Was it just that

10:40

he was very formal? I think he was

10:42

very polite

10:45

and well raised. But I also think he

10:47

might have been smart enough

10:49

to realize that if he showed himself

10:52

in person to my mother, if

10:54

there was an issue with the race, she

10:57

could just say no, she can't

10:59

go, and the

11:01

race is she wouldn't come up this

11:03

way. There would be no surprises.

11:07

Your mother would know that she was saying,

11:09

asked to you going

11:12

to a banquet with a black

11:14

man. I thought it was brilliant in retrospect.

11:17

Now, remember It's ninety

11:19

three, the year before the Civil

11:21

Rights Act of nineteen sixty four. When

11:24

former President Harry Truman, the

11:26

man who had signed the executive Order

11:28

integrating the armed forces, was

11:30

asked by reporters about his thoughts

11:32

and intermarriage, he replied that

11:35

he didn't believe in it, so it wouldn't

11:37

have been shocking if Peggy's parents

11:39

took issue with her daughter dating an African

11:41

American. Was Guy's

11:44

race ever discussed by you and your parents?

11:46

It must have been at some point. Never.

11:50

Peggy's parents, she says, were

11:52

different, particularly her dad,

11:54

which is kind of surprising. Dean

11:58

Rusk was a sub learned Democrat from

12:01

Cherokee County, Georgia, the grandson

12:03

of Confederate soldiers. As

12:06

a young boy, he delivered groceries

12:08

to white families and the black

12:10

families who lived literally on the

12:12

other side of the tracks. When

12:15

he would deliver to their black families,

12:18

um, everybody would be sitting outside

12:20

on the steps because it was hot, and Pop

12:22

said. He would sit on the steps and

12:25

listen to them talk and

12:28

realized that what they said

12:30

was completely different than

12:33

what black people would say when

12:35

they were around white people. Looking

12:38

back, russ would remember that he quote

12:41

heard their anger and learned of their

12:43

hopes, and even at age eight,

12:46

quote, I could sense the unfairness

12:48

of it all. As

12:50

he grew up, he quietly took a stand

12:52

against racial intolerance. In

12:56

two while serving in the War Department's

12:58

Military Intelligence off us, he

13:00

was meeting with Ralph Bunch, a

13:02

young analyst who would go on to become

13:05

a civil rights leader, a diplomat,

13:07

and the first African American to win

13:09

the Nobel Peace Prize. It

13:11

was lunchtime and Pap said, let's go the

13:13

captain he gets lunch and Mr.

13:16

Bunch said, Dan, you know I can't go

13:18

eat there. And Pap said, oh, yeah,

13:21

we'll see about that. It just went and

13:23

from that day on it's disagregated.

13:26

Now, as Secretary of State, Dean

13:29

Rusk's unwavering support of

13:31

American involvement in Vietnam

13:33

is a permanent part of his legacy.

13:36

It's in the first line of his New York Times,

13:38

Oh Bit, Rusk was on the

13:40

wrong side of history on Vietnam,

13:43

But what's been forgotten is his equally

13:45

unstinting support of civil

13:48

rights. It wasn't just a moral

13:50

issue for him, It was also a foreign

13:52

policy concern. He believed

13:55

legalized segregation would

13:57

keep the US from winning the Cold

13:59

War. And this was the time when

14:01

the African nations were being

14:04

built,

14:08

and so there are a lot of new African

14:11

diplomats in Washington,

14:17

But the capital of the Free World welcomed

14:20

these dignitaries with less than

14:22

open arms. In the early

14:24

nineteen sixties, d C remained

14:27

largely segregated, if not legally,

14:29

then in practice. Black diplomats

14:32

were living and working there, yet

14:34

often unable to find housing or

14:36

be served in many restaurants. Again,

14:39

these were diplomats. A Washington

14:41

Post article from the time notes that

14:44

d C was becoming a hardship

14:46

post for these emissaries. The

14:48

situation outside the city limits

14:51

was even worse for diplomats

14:53

traveling by car between the nation's

14:55

capital and the United Nations in New York

14:58

City. The only route was a on

15:00

US Highway forty, which

15:02

passed for a stretch through Maryland,

15:04

a state where businesses were still

15:07

legally permitted to segregate customers

15:09

or even refused to serve. African

15:12

diplomats found themselves ejected

15:14

from restaurants or unable to

15:17

use the bathroom. In

15:19

nineteen sixty one, the ambassador

15:21

from the newly formed country of Chad

15:23

was refused service as he tried

15:25

to get a cup of coffee in a Maryland diner.

15:28

The Governor of Maryland apologized

15:30

after the White House and Attorney General Robert

15:33

Kennedy interceded on

15:37

a personal note. I find this

15:39

little known chapter of history particularly

15:42

disturbing. I grew up in the nineteen

15:44

seventies in the Maryland suburbs outside

15:47

d C. The sauntering drive

15:49

down Massachusetts Avenue, also

15:51

known as Embassy Row towards downtown

15:54

is something I remember, fondly passing

15:57

one ornate embassy after another,

16:00

ring to memorize the flags outside each

16:02

one. The people who worked

16:04

there were their country's representatives

16:06

to America. I had no idea

16:09

of what black African diplomats were

16:11

subjected to. Only a decade

16:13

earlier. The troubling

16:15

and embarrassing situation was

16:17

summed up in a powerful speech given

16:20

by former CBS news anchor Edward

16:22

R. Murrow back in May of n Murrow

16:26

had recently become Director of the United

16:28

States Information Agency, and

16:30

he delivered a stark warning. It

16:33

is not only that these people

16:35

are humans like the rest of us, but

16:38

that they are leaders of the nations whose friendship

16:41

this land deems vital. We

16:45

would have them join our company

16:47

of honorable men and defending

16:49

against him, Coachman, our dedication

16:52

to dignity and freedom,

16:55

but it is a dignity

16:57

to which we were not fully

17:00

admit them. And in a nod cold

17:02

war tensions, Murrow noted,

17:04

and let us remember this is

17:06

not something that communists did

17:09

to us. We do it

17:11

ourselves in our own

17:13

capital. Is

17:16

it possible that we concern ourselves

17:18

too much with outer space

17:21

and fireplaces and

17:23

too little with inner space

17:26

and nearer places. Rusk

17:29

and the State Department knew that

17:31

these discriminatory actions were

17:33

damaging America's reputation

17:36

overseas. It was a huge problem

17:38

for him a Secretary State. I

17:41

just think it showed the United States to behavo

17:43

critical and not

17:46

willing to live up to its

17:49

own constitution. In Pilla,

17:51

France, throwing his support

17:54

behind the proposed Civil Rights Act,

17:56

Dean Rusk testified in a Senate

17:58

hearing in July of nine

18:00

three, sparring with South Carolina

18:03

Senator Strong Thermond.

18:05

Do you favor the demonstrations that have

18:07

been held and would you favor

18:09

demonstrations in the future. If the

18:12

civil rights builders not pays

18:16

various types of demonstration, I

18:19

would not wish to

18:21

make a blanket statement about all those that

18:24

I have known about what I would say this, sir,

18:26

if I were denied what

18:29

our Nego citizens denied, I would demonstrate.

18:32

Meanwhile, his daughter's boyfriend

18:34

was experiencing discrimination firsthand.

18:38

We were stopped at times by the police

18:42

in d C. In d C and

18:45

they would make God get out, make us

18:47

both get out, and they would

18:49

take forever searching the car, looking for

18:51

a reason to arrest him

18:53

or define him, or do whatever. And

18:56

I could see Guy being having

18:59

to hold his temper. And

19:05

it was an uncomfortable time. Were

19:07

you ever tempted to say I'm the

19:10

daughter of the Secretary of State? Because

19:12

that would have been I kept my mouth set, okay

19:16

um,

19:19

But it was not comfortable. It

19:22

made guy angry, was it? He? Was it

19:24

humiliating? I

19:26

know it made him angry because I could see it in

19:28

his eyes. I

19:31

don't know if humiliating the right word. I

19:36

think people of color back then, when they

19:38

were unjustly treated, we're

19:41

more angry than humiliated in

19:43

spite of the issues they faced. Peggy

19:46

also acknowledges the guy's

19:48

physical appearance was likely a factor

19:50

in some people being more accepting of

19:52

the relationship. I'm sure that

19:54

it made it easier in ways

19:58

that he was light skinned. After

20:01

dating for several years, Peggy

20:03

and Guy decided they wanted to get hitched.

20:06

It was Christmas of nineteen sixty six

20:08

when Peggy, home from her freshman year

20:10

at Stanford, told her parents

20:12

she would be getting married the following

20:15

year. He was going to be

20:17

going off to Vietnam

20:19

and I would be eighteen, and

20:22

um, we didn't ask for my parents permission.

20:24

We just said we're going to get married in

20:27

September, just like that. But

20:31

they had no idea how big

20:33

a deal this wedding would be, or

20:36

that nineteen seven would prove

20:38

to be a game changing year for

20:40

interracial marriage. After all, an

20:42

awful lot of people are going to think that we were a very shocking

20:45

pair, Isn't that right? Mrs Straight I

20:47

know what you mean. I

21:01

get that history doesn't move in a straight line,

21:04

but the history of interracial relationships

21:06

in this country really moves in

21:09

zigs and zags. With a number

21:11

of famous and not so famous names.

21:13

We're going to get to Peggy and Guy's wedding day

21:16

in a bit, but I wanted to go back further

21:18

in time to really explore how

21:20

we got to. Is

21:23

this a story that begins and ends

21:25

in Virginia. Yeah,

21:27

absolutely it does. That's

21:30

Cheryl cash And she's a Georgetown

21:33

University law professor and the author

21:35

of Loving Interracial Intimacy

21:37

and the Threat to White Supremacy. She

21:40

says interracial relationships began

21:42

in the earliest years of the Virginia

21:44

Colony. At the time, she writes, there

21:47

were legal unions between white people

21:49

and black people like Tony Longo.

21:53

Tony long Ago was

21:55

a very skilled cattleman when

21:58

he arrived as a kidnapped en

22:00

slave person. By sixtifty

22:02

two, he owned

22:04

two acres of land in

22:07

the colony. In the Jamestown

22:09

Colony, cash And says some

22:11

enslaved black people were able

22:13

to hire themselves out and buy their

22:16

freedom for a time. They were then

22:18

able to vote, bear arms,

22:20

and marry, which is what Tony Longo

22:23

eventually did, marrying a white

22:25

englishwoman after obtaining his freedom,

22:28

And he wasn't the only one. There

22:30

was no prohibition against interracial

22:33

marriage at that time. Were

22:35

they living their lives fairly

22:38

openly. Do we know, Yes, it

22:41

was not illegal. So this

22:43

marriage, which was legally

22:45

sanctioned, underscores

22:48

that at least among the working

22:50

class people, there wasn't

22:52

this strict separation.

22:55

And you know, there was actually a lot

22:57

of interracial cooperation, particularly

23:00

around resistance to masters.

23:05

Fearful of free black people and white

23:07

indentured servants coming together

23:10

and rebelling, new laws were created

23:12

to enforce separation, denying

23:15

black people first the right to bear arms,

23:17

then the right to vote. By

23:20

interracial marriage was illegal in

23:23

Virginia. Other colonies and eventually

23:25

states would enact similar laws.

23:28

Still, interracial relationships

23:31

were happening. Okay, quick note,

23:33

I'm using the word relationship to

23:35

describe how two individuals

23:38

related to each other, not to

23:40

imply consent. You probably

23:42

know the story of Thomas Jefferson and

23:44

Sally Hemmings, which by most accounts

23:47

was non consensual. After

23:49

all, she was enslaved by Jefferson

23:51

at Monticello. But Cheryl

23:53

cash In writes about a relationship between

23:56

another slaveholding white politician

23:58

and a black woman that she describes

24:01

differently. I consider

24:03

myself a presidential history buff,

24:05

but clearly I need to bone up on my

24:07

vice presidential history, because I

24:09

had no idea that Martin Van Buren's vice

24:11

president, Richard Mentor Johnson,

24:14

had an interracial relationship

24:16

that you described as sort of a common

24:19

law marriage. Richard

24:21

Mentor Johnson actually was

24:24

one of the best known politicians

24:27

of his era, and Johnson

24:29

became the center of national attention

24:32

during the election of eighteen thirty six

24:35

when the public became aware of his common

24:37

law marriage with Julia Chen,

24:40

a mixed race woman. Enslaved

24:42

by his family, Johnson,

24:44

from Kentucky had two daughters with

24:46

Chen and publicly recognized

24:48

them as his own. The daughters

24:51

lived their lives as free women, both

24:53

marrying white men. People were

24:55

scandalous. What was shocking was that

24:58

he was bringing this out into the open and

25:00

trying to have it legitimated because he genuinely

25:03

loved this woman. Johnson

25:05

defended his marriage as quote,

25:08

under the eyes of God. While

25:10

he was serving in Congress, Julia

25:12

Chinn died. What really

25:15

scandalized people about this

25:18

man is that he continued to

25:20

take up with black

25:22

women he enslaved. I

25:25

guess he had a thing about that. Southern

25:27

newspapers denounced Richard Mentor

25:30

Johnson as the great amalgamationist.

25:33

As far as I can tell, um,

25:36

the relationship with Julia

25:39

chen was was a benevolent, voluntary

25:41

relationship, but his subsequent sex

25:44

with other black women, as far

25:46

as I could tell, was rape. So I would

25:48

use rapist at least for these subsequent

25:50

relationships. Fast forward

25:53

to the post Civil War North and

25:55

a figure who still looms large

25:57

today, the great right

26:00

or abolitionist Frederick

26:03

Douglas. I had no

26:05

idea that he had married

26:08

a white woman. Never knew this, Really,

26:12

you didn't know this. Douglas, the

26:14

child of a black mother and white father,

26:17

was married for over forty years to Anna

26:19

Murray Douglas, a free black woman,

26:22

But in eighteen eighty four, a year and a

26:24

half after Anna's death, he married

26:26

a white suffragist named Helen

26:28

Pitts in Philadelphia, where interracial

26:31

marriage was legal. Frederick

26:33

Douglas emancipated

26:35

himself not only from slavery,

26:37

but from the social constrictions

26:40

of race. He was the

26:43

center of a

26:45

bi racial abolitionist

26:48

movement that gave some opportunity

26:50

to actually meet someone on equal terms

26:53

and equal intellectual terms. Douglas's

26:56

marriage caused an uproar, and

26:58

not just among white people, ball. A

27:00

black Washington, d c. Newspaper called

27:03

it a national calamity.

27:05

Black reformer and intellectual book

27:07

or T. Washington wrote his own

27:10

race especially condemned him, and

27:12

the notion seemed to be quite general that

27:14

he had made the most serious mistake

27:17

of his life. Well, this is what

27:19

happens. You know, You've been centuries

27:23

teaching people to stay

27:25

within lines and having

27:28

rules that fortify a color

27:30

line. It colors the

27:33

practices of people on both sides

27:35

of the line. In a

27:37

letter to a friend, Douglas defended

27:39

his marriage, asking what business

27:41

has the world with the color of my wife?

27:45

So ahead of his time? You

27:47

know, just to say, I am going

27:49

to do what my heart tells me to

27:51

do, and I'm going to exercise

27:55

every discretion that freedom

27:58

springs, including who I

28:00

decided to marry in love. While

28:03

Frederick Douglas was able to marry someone

28:05

of a different race in the late eighteen hundreds,

28:08

that was certainly not the case everywhere.

28:10

The post Civil War era of reconstruction

28:13

had seen the end of some interracial

28:16

marriage bands, but in most cases

28:18

only briefly. The doors

28:20

would close again towards the end of the nineteenth

28:23

century, as Jim Crow laws

28:25

went into effect in the South. In

28:30

nineteen fifteen, D W. Griffith's

28:33

landmark and deeply racist

28:35

film The Birth of a Nation was released.

28:38

In one of its more infamous scenes, an

28:41

actor in blackface menaces

28:43

a Southern white woman who leaps

28:45

to her death rather than submit to him.

28:47

This pernicious myth of the black man

28:50

as a predator was being perpetuated

28:52

cash and says as a way of preventing

28:55

the races from mixing. From

28:58

the beginning, that was a central

29:01

part of the dogma

29:03

around race and civil rights. You

29:05

know, the fear that if we give any

29:07

black freedom, your daughter is going to

29:09

end up having sex with the black man. And how enduring

29:13

and central the political

29:15

debates around race were

29:17

tied to this question of interracial

29:19

marriage and interracial sex. By

29:22

the mid twentie century, attitudes had

29:24

calcified, particularly though

29:26

not exclusively, in the South. In

29:29

the late nineteen fifties, only four

29:31

percent of Americans approved of interracial

29:34

marriage. Once you put

29:37

in place an institution

29:40

that's animated by an ideology,

29:42

here the ideology white supremacy. The

29:44

ideology continues even

29:47

after the institution slavery

29:50

ends. Generation after generation is

29:52

conscripted into this social

29:55

order which says you

29:57

should not cross this line. So

30:00

those habits continue. So

30:02

it's very hard to disrupt something

30:04

like that. But

30:09

disruption finally came in nineteen

30:11

sixty seven thanks to a couple

30:13

named Richard and Mildred Loving.

30:16

The story that began years ago in the farmlands

30:19

of Caroline County may provide

30:21

the landmark decision on

30:23

interracial marriage. The

30:26

two had grown up together in Central Point,

30:28

a small town in Virginia with a long

30:31

history of white and black residents

30:33

mixing. Richard was white, Mildred

30:36

part black, part Native American. The

30:38

two married in nineteen fifty eight,

30:41

traveling to Washington, d c. Where

30:43

they could legally wed. After they

30:45

took their bows, the Lovings went

30:47

home to Virginia.

30:50

Mr Leving, tell me what happened after you got

30:53

married and when did you first get

30:55

into trouble with the law. Um,

30:58

We've been married on second day

31:01

of June, and

31:03

the police came after us the fourteenth

31:05

of July. We married a month.

31:08

In a few days, the

31:10

sheriff of Caroline County and his

31:13

deputies burst into the Loving's

31:15

house in the middle of the night, arresting

31:17

the couple in their bedroom. Mrs

31:19

Loving. What has been the worst part about all this for

31:21

you? Well, I

31:24

guess the worst thing that was in

31:26

the middle time in jail. That's the worst thing.

31:29

The two were sentenced to a year in

31:31

prison, but the sentences were suspended

31:34

on the condition that they leave Virginia

31:36

and not returned together for twenty

31:39

five years. The Lovings

31:41

began raising their family in Washington, d

31:43

c. But after several years,

31:45

Mildred had had enough. She wanted

31:47

to live in Virginia with her husband

31:50

and their children and without fear.

31:52

The A c. L U took the Lovings

31:54

case and began a legal battle that would

31:56

go all the way to the Supreme Court in nine

31:59

sixty seven. You couldn't ask

32:01

for a better case, the Lovings. You

32:04

know, this is like something out of a movie,

32:07

right, the Lovings. In June

32:09

of that year, the Court decided in the

32:11

Loving's favor, a unanimous decision

32:14

ruling that the bands on interracial marriage,

32:16

which still existed in sixteen

32:19

states, were unconstitutional.

32:23

These are not people who would want to

32:25

be public figures. But it was their deep

32:28

love for each other and just wanting the

32:30

right to live in the community they love

32:32

with the person they love that made

32:34

them persevere, and only three

32:37

months later Peggy Rusk and

32:39

Guy Smith would walk down the aisle

32:41

and onto a magazine cover the

32:52

Loving versus Virginia case. Were

32:55

you following that at all? Were

32:58

you even aware of it? Vaguely?

33:02

So you didn't think this thing that's

33:04

happening kind of applies

33:06

to me. They wouldn't have changed

33:08

your mind. We

33:10

were going to get married regardless. As

33:13

their wedding day approached, Peggy Ruskin

33:16

Guy Smith had managed to

33:18

stay under the radar even as

33:20

the country was debating the propriety and

33:22

legality of interracial marriage,

33:25

a blessed privacy which lasted almost

33:27

till the moment they walked out of the Stanford

33:29

University chapel as man and wife.

33:33

On September one, Peggy

33:37

Ruskin Guy Smith were married.

33:39

Newsreels show the couple emerging

33:41

from the chapel at Stanford with smiles

33:44

on their faces. I think some of

33:46

the press coverage said that no

33:48

one seemed less anxious than

33:51

you and Guy, that you were utterly

33:53

at ease, were completely

33:55

but still your eighteen

33:57

You're walking out of a chapel and

34:00

there is a phalanx of press there.

34:02

Did that set you back on your heels a little bit,

34:05

you just want with it. The wedding took

34:07

place in front of about sixty guests,

34:10

including the bride and groom's parents,

34:13

but several of Dean Rusk's Georgia

34:15

relatives refused to attend.

34:20

Was their disapproval from some members of the

34:22

family. I'm sure Papa

34:25

told don't ever show up at a family union

34:27

again. That's a pretty clear message if

34:31

the condemnation of his relatives bothered

34:33

him. Dean Rusk was not one

34:35

to share the secretary please,

34:40

thank you. But according

34:42

to Peggy, her father was concerned

34:44

that his daughter's marriage might create problems

34:47

for President Johnson by risking

34:49

crucial support from Southerners in

34:51

Congress, and so, she says,

34:54

he made a dramatic proposal of his

34:56

own to the commander in chief. My

34:58

father went to President Johnson before we

35:00

got married and offered his resignation,

35:04

and Johnson said, forget it. You

35:06

know, I didn't buy the Johnson at all. Did you

35:09

know that your father had done that not till

35:11

afterwards. And what did you think when you

35:13

heard that? It's

35:16

like Pop, too, serve

35:19

the man he's supposed

35:22

to be serving, and be honest with him

35:24

about all things. So it was very much

35:26

in character. This was a very

35:28

joyous wedding. There

35:30

was no gloom. And I would

35:33

go further and say that this

35:36

maybe a stride in the direction

35:39

that we all need to be taking with it's

35:42

very difficult business of race

35:44

relations and this area in particular.

35:47

That's Reverend be Davy Napier,

35:50

the dean of the Stanford Chapel, who officiated

35:53

Peggy and Guy's wedding, talking to CBS

35:55

News, and he was right. There

35:57

was a lot of joy, but there was also a

36:00

lot of hate. I showed up at

36:02

Stanford on Monday, Monday

36:05

after we got married. They

36:07

were huge, big

36:09

male sacks of mail, you

36:12

know, the big canvas sacks full

36:14

of mail. We'd

36:16

sit on the floor and we'd

36:19

open letters, and you know,

36:21

it was pretty easy to tell which were positive,

36:23

which are negative? What was the ratio about

36:25

about seventy five negative?

36:29

And the negatives were usually really

36:31

thick and full of Bible versus

36:34

verses and stuff like that. Did

36:37

any of the nasty e Maale scare you really?

36:41

Did they include threats? Oh? Yeah?

36:44

Did you did you report any of those

36:46

letters? Yeah?

36:50

Peggy and Guy took it all in stride.

36:53

The bad with the good, and perhaps

36:55

the most surprising moment of all,

36:57

a week after the wedding, they realized

37:00

they were on the cover of Time magazine.

37:03

Time magazine was a big

37:05

deal back then. You're on the

37:08

cover of it. Did you know you

37:10

were going to be on the covered floor? So

37:12

this hit news stands and you went, that's

37:15

me and my husband remembering

37:17

The Godfather when they're walking down

37:19

the street and they see the headline

37:21

if what's his name? The men guy

37:23

getting shot? Right? And they stopped

37:26

and go back and look like that. That

37:28

was us with that magazine. We

37:30

had no idea and

37:32

we're walking down the street and all of a sudden,

37:35

please see a news stand? As

37:40

you're kidding me? Can I just tell you by the way

37:42

I held my breath waiting for which scene in The

37:44

Godfather you were going to site? Thank goodness, it wasn't

37:47

the Horsehead. No, no, no. Did

37:49

you immediately buy a copy and read a

37:52

copy? We probably bought ten. They

37:58

had captured the public's attention so

38:00

much so that when a major motion picture

38:02

about interracial marriage premiered a few

38:04

months later, the film would get an

38:06

unexpected boost of publicity thanks

38:09

to the extensive coverage of Peggy and Guy's

38:12

nuptials. As writer Mark

38:14

Harris notes in his book Pictures at

38:16

a Revolution, the wedding quote

38:18

brought the subject of interracial marriage

38:20

to the forefront of the national conversation

38:23

about race, or, as it

38:25

was bluntly put by New York Post critic

38:27

Archer Winston, the Dean Rusk

38:29

family appears to have fronted for this

38:32

very film. God

38:39

that film Guess

38:41

Who's Coming to Dinner, with

38:47

a star studded cast of Spencer

38:49

Tracy in his final movie role, Katherine

38:51

Hepburn, and Sidney Poitier, along

38:54

with Hepburn's niece Katherine Houghton. Guess

38:56

Who's Coming to Dinner was the story of

38:59

a white, liberal San Francisco couple

39:01

forced to confront their own prejudices

39:04

when their daughter comes home with the black

39:06

man she intends to marry. And it never

39:08

occurred to me that I might fall in love with a Negro.

39:11

But I did. And nothing in the world

39:13

is going to change that. Even

39:15

if you had any objections, I wouldn't let him go.

39:17

Now, if you are the governor

39:19

of Alabama. Guess Who's Coming to

39:21

Dinner was filmed before the Loving Versus

39:23

Virginia decision came down, hence

39:26

some of the references that had already fallen

39:28

out of date. Have you thought what people

39:30

would say about you? Why in sixteen

39:33

and seventeen states you would be breaking the law, You'd

39:35

be criminals, and say they changed

39:37

the law. That don't change the way

39:39

people feel about this thing. The movie

39:42

ends with a stirring speech by Spencer

39:44

Tracy. It might seem a little hokey

39:46

today, but it's still a powerful

39:48

moment, especially given it was Tracy's

39:51

last moment on screen. He

39:53

would die just seventeen days

39:55

after filming. I'm sure you know

39:58

what you're up against. There

40:01

will be a hundred million people right here in this

40:03

country will be shocked

40:06

and offended and appalled at

40:08

the two of you, And

40:11

the two of you will just have to ride that out,

40:15

maybe every day for the rest of your lives.

40:19

You can try to ignore those

40:21

people. Are you gonna feel

40:23

sorry for them and for their prejudices

40:26

and their bigotry and their blind

40:28

hatreds and stupid fears. But

40:31

we're necessary. You'll

40:33

just have to cling tight to each other

40:37

and say, screw all those people, Guess

40:40

who's coming to dinner. It was a big hit

40:42

with audiences. In a little over

40:44

a year, it was on varieties list

40:46

of all time box office winners

40:49

in the company have gone with the Wind and the

40:51

Sound of Music. The movie was

40:53

an Awards darling as well, getting

40:55

nominated for ten Oscars, including

40:58

Best Picture and winning a

41:00

Major Acting Award coincidentally

41:02

presented by Sydney Poitier. The

41:05

winner is Katherine Hepburn

41:07

and guest Who's Brother. Which

41:13

is not to say everyone loved it. Life

41:15

magazine's film critic would call the movie

41:17

an inescapably sentimental occasion.

41:20

Another person who wasn't a fan, Peggy

41:23

Rusk, I saw the movie.

41:26

I didn't relate to it. I

41:28

thought they made too big a deal about the race.

41:30

That wasn't

41:34

how we felt at all. That was

41:37

actually kind of bored. There

41:42

are some great performances that I'm a

41:47

When Guy was deployed as a helicopter pilot

41:50

to Vietnam after their wedding, he and

41:52

Peggy wrote to each other every

41:54

single day, even after

41:56

his return. If he was away for a few days,

41:59

they would write each other. The letters

42:01

are heartfelt and tender. I

42:04

love you with all my heart and

42:06

consider myself the happiest and

42:08

luckiest girl in the world. So,

42:10

Darling, I guess that's why I don't

42:13

fall apart when you have to be away. It's

42:16

because you are so much a

42:18

part of my soul that even

42:20

when you are three thousand miles away,

42:22

I still feel like you are within

42:25

me. Take care of lover, and

42:27

don't work too hard. I love

42:29

you very very much and can't

42:32

wait to be in your arms again. I

42:34

love Peggy. Guy

42:38

and Peggy had a daughter, two

42:40

grandchildren, and it seems a very

42:42

happy life. The couple had

42:44

been married for nearly forty five years

42:47

when Guy died in at

42:49

age sixty seven. At

42:51

the end, he was suffering from dementia.

42:56

Then he got to the point where he um

42:59

really wouldn't recognize or

43:03

too much of anything. But

43:07

I was the one person he

43:09

still recognized.

43:12

He he never stopped

43:14

recognizing. He never stopped recognizing me.

43:17

Was was he able to speak a

43:20

little bit? And

43:23

his last words, because

43:25

he died at home in bed, I was

43:27

holding him, and his

43:29

last conscious words were to

43:32

apologize for leaving me alone.

43:38

So Peggy

43:45

Rusk and Guy Smith became a part

43:47

of our cultural history because

43:49

of what people saw of their marriage from

43:51

the outside. Two people with

43:53

different skin colors. But

43:55

ultimately this was a love story,

43:59

this story which

44:01

a lot of people would

44:03

use the word hard to describe what that must

44:05

have been hard that part, you know, it must

44:07

have been difficult, and

44:11

you're telling of it.

44:13

It was just so easy. It was easy.

44:17

It doesn't need to be hard, is

44:22

that to love? You know?

44:25

If the love is there

44:27

and if it's real, it's all

44:29

that matters, and

44:32

it's really powerful, and people

44:35

just need to

44:38

stop more in the mouths other stuff and just

44:41

it's been a lot more time loving. It's not that hard

44:43

and it's well worth it. A

44:48

final note, Peggy told

44:50

me that if her wedding happened today, it

44:52

wouldn't be a big story at all, and

44:54

she's probably right. Remember

44:57

earlier I mentioned that in the late fifties

45:00

only four percent of Americans approved

45:02

of interracial marriage, as

45:06

that number had grown to I

45:14

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45:17

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