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alleged unfairness of a prohibition on same-sex marriage.

But the bans on interracial marriage had nothing to do with our understanding of marriage.

The ban on interracial marriage, which the Supreme Court found unconstitutional in 1967, stemmed from the ban on interracial marriage in Virginia going back to 1924. That legislation was called The Racial Integrity Act. It was about racial purity. It had nothing to do with the definition of marriage.

In 1924, few did not accept that marriage was the sacred bond between a man and woman. The racists were concerned about a man and woman of different races entering into that sacred bond.

But somehow race gets dragged into every perverse ideological battle that happens in our country.

In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that African Americans were not human beings. In the Dred Scott decision, the court ruled that people of African descent “are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges” accorded to citizens.

The meaning of “citizen” was reinvented to serve a political and ideological agenda.

With the passage of the 14th Amendment, the American people restored the truth and integrity of the word “citizen” — “All persons born and naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” — and obliterated a corrupt, ideological ruling of the Supreme Court.

The Obergefell decision did to the word “marriage” what the Dred Scott decision did to the word “citizen.”

It took a civil war to bring forth the 14th Amendment. What will it take to restore how, as a society, we understand what it means to be married?

Per recent data from the Census Bureau, in 2022, 34% of those over age 15 had never been married, compared to 23% in 1950.

In a 2020 Pew survey, 16% said it was “essential” for a man to marry and 17% said it was essential for a woman.

French nobleman Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in his classic study, “Democracy in America,” “One cannot say that in the United States religion exerts an influence on the laws … but it directs mores, and it is in regulating the family that it works to regulate the state. … Of the world’s countries, America is surely the one where the bond of marriage is most respected.” That was in 1835. In 2022, know that those who love our country and understand what made and makes it great are in for the long haul. An America without truth is an America without a future.

Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show “Cure America with Star Parker.” To find out more about Star Parker and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www. creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2022 CREATORS. COM