Poll: 46% of Mississippi Republican Voters Believe Interracial Marriage Should Be Illegal

A new poll of Republican voters in the state of Mississippi found that fully 46% believe that interracial marriage ought to be illegal, while only 40% said it should remain legal, Raw Story reports.

The poll, conducted by the survey group Public Policy Polling, found that Republican voters who favored outlawing interracial marriage most favored former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who quit halfway through her term, for President. Least liked was former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

Mississippi Republicans most want their governor, Haley Barbour, to be the GOP nominee in 2012. Thirty-seven percent of the poll’s respondents chose Barbour, 19% chose former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, and 10% chose former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin.

Interracial marriage was illegal in Mississippi until the 1967 Supreme Court ruling, Loving v. Virginia, struck down anti-miscegenation laws in the United States. Mississippi remains one of the most racially divided states in the country. Incredibly, the state proposed issuing a license plate honoring early Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Nathaniel Bedford Forrest– a measure that Governor Barbour refused to denounce. Barbour also praised a civil rights-era segregationist hate group.

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