Andrew King (March 20, 1812 – November 18, 1895) was a member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

representing

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

in the mid- to late 19th century. He was a member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

Career

A Democrat, King notably was the first congressperson to propose a nationwide ban on

interracial marriage in the United States Interracial marriage has been legal throughout the United States since at least the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court (Warren Court) decision '' Loving v. Virginia'' (1967) that held that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional via the 14th Amendm ...

, which he did in 1871. King proposed an

amendment An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. It is based on the verb to amend, which means to change for better. Amendments can add, remove, or update parts of these agreements. They ...

to the

US constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the nation ...

to ban interracial marriage because he feared that the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868 to give equal

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

to the emancipated ex-slaves (the

Freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), abolitionism, emancipation (gra ...

) as part of the process of

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

, would render laws against interracial marriage unconstitutional.

External links

* 1812 births 1895 deaths Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri 19th-century American politicians {{Missouri-politician-stub