Mike, At one time, marriage between whites and blacks was prohibited throughout the U.S. Since the philosophy was (and is in some minds, including some blacks) that if a person had one drop of Negro blood, then they were black, that would then include mulattos. Various states rescinded that law at different times, so I don't know when Virginia would have dropped it, but I believe the southern states were among the last. I do remember that some states had it in effect as recently as the 1950's. I can remember something in the news when I was a teenager in the late 1950's about a couple being arrested in one of the states because they attempted to marry in defiance of that law. It sticks in my memory because we had a "discussion" about it in my family, and I took the stance that people should be able to marry whomever they wanted to. I have read that some mixed couples moved to states where it was legal. Elaine