Civil rights advocates in eastern Louisiana are calling for a justice of the peace of Tangipahoa Parish to resign after he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple.

“He’s an elected public official and one of his duties is to marry people. He doesn’t have the right to say he doesn’t believe in it,” Patricia Morris, president of the NAACP branch of Tangipahoa Parish, located near the Mississippi line, said Thursday.

“If he doesn’t do what his position calls for him to do, he should resign from that position.”

The demands for Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace for Tangipahoa Parish’s 8th Ward, to step down came after he wouldn’t issue a marriage license to Beth Humphrey, 30, and her boyfriend, Terence McKay, 32, both of Hammond.

“I was just really shocked, because he’s an elected official,” Humphrey said.

Bardwell didn’t immediately return calls from CNN on Thursday.

However, Bardwell told Hammond’s Daily Star newspaper that he was concerned for the children who might be born of the relationship and that, in his experience, most interracial marriages don’t last.

“I’m not a racist,” Bardwell told the newspaper. “I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house. My main concern is for the children.”

Bardwell, stressing that he couldn’t personally endorse the marriage, said his wife referred the couple to another justice of the peace.

The bride says the case boils down to discrimination.

Humphrey told CNN that she called Bardwell on October 6 to ask about getting a marriage license, and was asked by his wife whether it would be an interracial marriage. Humphrey said she was told that Bardwell does not sign off on interracial marriages.

She said the couple—who received their marriage license October 9 from another justice of the peace in the same parish—have reached out to an attorney to determine their next step.

“We would like him to resign,” she said. “He doesn’t believe he’s being racist, but it is racist.”

Morris told CNN that her NAACP chapter has forwarded the case to the state and national levels of the civil rights group.

According to the Census Bureau, Tangipahoa Parish is about 70 percent white and 30 percent black.

From CNN.com.

Wow.

Maegan - 16 October 2009 12:38 PM

Wow.

I concur.

See, if it were a church, I’d disapprove, but I’d say it was their right to only marry who they wanted to marry. A Justice of the Peace refusing the right to marry, though?
I agree with Maeg and Tah.

Agreed.  The law says that such a union is legal.  I understand his referring them to another J.O.P. for a license, but as an elected official, that really isn’t good enough.  If he doesn’t like the law he should try and change it.  Until then, his job description calls for him to set his personal feeling aside and DO HIS JOB.

Why do they need an attorney? 

Oh, and I supposed this JOTP thinks it would be better for the children if they procreated outside of marriage?

He claims that he isn’t racist, but he won’t marry interracial couples because of the children that come from such marriages, Sounds kind of racist to me.. Plus what is wrong with mixed children/people?? I mean there are plenty of people out there that are mixed and doing fine for themselves.. Example: Celebrity Maya Rudolph http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys0M9u0wQUA

bingster - 23 October 2009 10:04 AM

Plus what is wrong with mixed children/people?? I mean there are plenty of people out there that are mixed and doing fine for themselves..

Yup!

I wonder whether or not a justice of the peace in that region is allowed to refuse to marry couples or not?  And if they are, under what circumstances?

Accipiter - 23 October 2009 10:36 AM

I wonder whether or not a justice of the peace in that region is allowed to refuse to marry couples or not?  And if they are, under what circumstances?

I am from Louisiana and, no, they are not allowed to refuse. The JOP is from rural Tangipahoa Parish which is also where Britney Spears was born. ‘Nuff said.
I am from East Baton Rouge Parish which is west of Tangi Parish.

Ahdora - 16 October 2009 09:19 AM

However, Bardwell told Hammond’s Daily Star newspaper that he was concerned for the children who might be born of the relationship and that, in his experience, most interracial marriages don’t last.

Because non-mixed marriages have such a stunning track record. 

I suppose it wouldn’t do any good to tell that idiot there is only one race of people on earth, Homo sapien. Somehow I think any science would be lost on him.