"Hey, you didn't tell me you was married to no black man," said the owner of an RV Park before evicting an interracial couple in Tupelo, Mississipi. "It's a big problem with the members of my church, my community, and my mother-in-law."
This, according to 40-year-old Erica Flores Dunahoo, only shortly after it was discovered that her husband, 37-year-old Sergeant Stanley Hoskins of the National Guard, is African-American. The incident, which has drawn the focus of an NAACP investigation, is alleged to have occurred when park owner Gene Baker rejected Dunahoo's payment of rent on February 28th. Reports indicate that Baker has acknowledged requesting the family move, stating: "the neighbors were giving me such a problem."
Baker's violation of their civil rights prompted Dunahoo to come to the defense of the father of her two children, citing his 13 years as a veteran of the armed services. Never in their 10 years together had they experienced discrimination until the February encounter, Dunahoo said. A 2011 New York Times piece actually highlighted Mississippi's progress per race relations, citing a 70% growth of a multiracial population between 2000 and 2010.
2017 will mark 50 years since the U.S. Supreme Court abolished laws barring interracial marriage in Mississippi. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 made it illegal to rent to anybody based on "race, color, religion, sex or national origin."
Source: clarionledger.com
