In the years before the Civil War, many states bordering the South passed laws banning the amount of African American and mixed race people that could enter their states. Some also included resolutions that made interracial marriage between whites and black illegal. Bethel AME fought back against this law by helping runaway slaves escape further North, as well as heading protests against the law. Indiana did not repel this legislation until 1965, two years before the Supreme Court ruled on the Loving v Virginia case, making the banning of interracial marriage unconstitutional.
Image Courtesy of Indiana Historical Society