45 Years Ago This Couple Had To Break Up Because Of Racism – Now They Have Finally Been Able To Get Married!

These days, people are a lot more accepting of the “different lifestyles” (although I do hate to use such a phrase) that other people may choose to live. Not all people, completely, that is, but when compared to how it actually was a couple of years ago, we have definitely made some progress at least.

In the same sense, it’s super easy for us to look around and believe that the world is a huge, corrupt, terrible mess and burning hatred and absolute intolerance are growing more powerful every single day. Alas, despite all of that, there’s one very important thing to remember; Love always wins.

Okay so it may move slowly and it may move subtly, so much so that if you blink, you’ll probably miss it. However, if you look with the right kind of eyes or take a journey back over all the time that has passed within your mind, you will find that both love and tolerance are, in fact, the ones that are growing stronger and more powerful every single day.

How do I know this? Well, Meet Howard Foster and Myra Clark. Intolerance is the only thing that has kept these two lovebirds apart for more than 45, long, years… however, since love always triumphs all, it eventually found its way back to them both.

The two actually started dating way back while they were students at West High School in Columbus, Ohio during 1967. They eventually fell in love, which is just the most adorable thing, right? Well, yes, but unfortunately during that time, it just seemed as though it wasn’t meant to be.

You see Howard, who is black, ended up breaking up with Myra, who is white, due to the fact that he was super scared that racism wouldn’t allow their beautiful love to exist peacefully. Can you imagine!? So awful.

(Source: Myra Clark)

Back then, there were pretty regular demonstrations related to race on their own high school grounds where the Ku Klux Klan would often try to recruit members, which when thinking about that today, just seems so absolutely insane!

“Society is not going to let us be happy,” he told her. “I just figured she wasn’t going to be happy.”

According to The Columbia Dispatch, the couple then graduated from high school but soon broke up after Howard experienced racism from his own college professors seeing as he was the only black person to attend the Columbus Technical Institute. HIS COLLEGE PROFESSORS!!! WHAT!

“It didn’t matter how well I did the project, it was always a D,” he said of one professor’s class. “I had never experienced that type of racism, that way. I said, ‘It’s just not going to be good.’ I really thought about her. Society wasn’t going to let us be together and she be happy. She’d get tired of the stares. I just thought it was unfair to her. Her happiness was the most important thing.”

(Source: Myra Clark)

After what I can imagine was an incredibly difficult conversation, they hugged for one last time… and walked away. (excuse me for a minute while I just go bawl my freakin’ eyes out)

“Then a block away, we both turned around at the same time and waved. I really think that wave was, I’ll see you later,” Myra told WSYX/WTTE, according to ABC 6.

Howard, of course, said that the incredibly hard decision he felt he had to make broke his heart.

“I remember just sitting in my car and crying because it was not an easy decision. I really did love her,” Howard said.

(Source: Myra Clark)

Well, several decades had passed since that heartbreaking moment happened however Howard and Myra would still often think about each other throughout their entire separation.

“I wondered what would my life be like with her. What would it be like if we had stayed together?” Howard recalls.

Howard did eventually get married but then eventually later divorced… and Myra was never wed (sorry I can’t shake the feeling that I’m reading a freakin’ Nicholas Sparks novel right now). The two eventually (and FINALLY) reconnected through a mutual friend in back 2013 and they were able to pick up exactly where they left off.

Oh my HEART.

(Source: Myra Clark)

They were apparently immediately drawn to each other, even after all this time, and held hands across a picnic table while at Sharon Woods Metro Park on their first “actual” date.

It was as if they had literally never, ever been apart.

“For me, the fact that I was sitting there holding her hands is something that I thought would never happen,” said Howard. “And I was not letting her go.”

And now, finally, because times are waaaaay more tolerant, they could be once and for all be together peacefully. Interracial marriage was actually made legal (although to think that it at one point had to be made legal is absolutely mind-blowing) when the Supreme Court decided Loving vs. Virginia after an interracial couple, Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving, bravely sued the state of Virginia over a completely ridiculous law that prohibited their marriage.

(Source: Myra Clark)

While, yes, we still have a lot of work to do when it comes down to racism and tolerance, there are a lot of things that have indeed changed for the better in America since then.

“Racism is in the minority,” Howard said.

As you can imagine, it wasn’t long before the two finally got hitched on August 1st in 2015. HALLELUJAH! And this time their union was very happily celebrated. So much so, in fact, that the pair’s story was featured in both The New York Times and The Columbia Dispatch pretty recently.

So, you see folks? No matter what, no matter how hopeless it may seem or how much time has passed love well and truly finds a way! So don’t you give up hope!

 

If that is not absolutely the most inspiring, beautiful story of love conquering all you’ve ever heard, then you are LYING. How has Howard and Myra’s story made you feel? Do you know anyone who tragically had to go through a similar thing for love? Let me know in the comments! And don’t forget to spread this glorious message by sharing this with all your friends and family! AAx

 

The post 45 Years Ago This Couple Had To Break Up Because Of Racism – Now They Have Finally Been Able To Get Married! appeared first on Go Social.