Reacting to this grotesque loophole, the state legislature acted in 1933 to prevent marriage between whites and members of the Malay race.
Fifteen years later, Perez v Sharp struck down bans on interracial marriage in California -- the first state to do so since a flurry of states did in the post-Civil War era -- and it was another 19 years before Loving v Virginia hit the Supreme Court and struck down the remaining bans in the South.
