Post #293053 by ikitnrev on Mon, Mar 19, 2007 8:24 AM

What a great story! Kind of makes you appreciate the advances our country has made in the last 50 years - and so good to hear about this couple are still alive and living in Baltimore.

For a while I was worried that the most historic event to have taken place at the Emerson Hotel was the horrible beating immortalized in the song 'The Death of Hattie Carroll', which happened in February 1963. It is so nice to hear this story to present a much more positive side of the Emerson. Two dancers/performers meet in December, 1963 in the Emerson's Hawaiian Room - one Samoan, one Caucasian. They fall in love. The law prevents them from marrying each other, but the attention and press they receive when they are not allowed to wed, help to turn the tide against these unjust laws, and soon the Supreme Court is banning such miscengation laws.

This is one of the most heart-warming and positive tiki-related stories I have ever read. And to think that it happened in nearby Baltimore.

Vern

[ Edited by: ikitnrev 2007-03-19 12:01 ]