RACE REMIXED

Black and White and Married in the Deep South: A Shifting Image





By SUSAN SAULNY

NYTimes.com

Published: March 19, 2011



HATTIESBURG, Miss. — For generations here in the deepest

South, there had been a great taboo: publicly crossing the

color line for love. Less than 45 years ago, marriage

between blacks and whites was illegal, and it has been

frowned upon for much of the time since.

Race Remixed



So when a great job beckoned about an hour’s drive north

of the Gulf Coast, Jeffrey Norwood, a black college

basketball coach, had reservations. He was in a serious

relationship with a woman who was white and Asian.



“You’re thinking about a life in South Mississippi?” his

father said in a skeptical voice, recalling days when a

black man could face mortal danger just being seen with a

woman of another race, regardless of intentions. “Are you

sure?”



But on visits to Hattiesburg, the younger Mr. Norwood said

he liked what he saw: growing diversity. So he moved,

married, and, with his wife, had a baby girl who was

counted on the last census as black, white and Asian.

Taylor Rae Norwood, 3, is one of thousands of mixed-race

children who have made this state home to one of the

country’s most rapidly expanding multiracial populations,

up 70 percent between 2000 and 2010, according to new data

from the Census Bureau.



for the rest of this article, go to

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/us/20race.html



___________________________________________