In 1963 my in-laws, Howard and Suzanne Sugiuchi, fell in love in Mississippi. They were unable to marry because Howard was Japanese. Mississippi anti-miscegenation laws prohibited whites from marrying anyone but whites. Howard and Suzanne had to elope to Alabama in order to get married. In October I interviewed them for Storycorps. Our interview was aired as part of WUGA’s Valentine’s Day Special.
Incidentally none of their children knew this story until I asked Suzanne, about two years after her son Chris and I married. I was never one of those girls who dreamed of her wedding day. The main reason I went through with the ceremony was because Chris didn’t want to disappoint his parents -he’s that sweet of a son. We would have eloped too had I known this story!