Since the ruling on Obergefell v Hodges, some counties have refused to issue any marriage licenses, politicians are calling the Supreme Court an unnecessary institution, and many conservatives are worried about religious freedom. Was there a similar reaction when the Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage? What was the reaction of conservatives or Southern states w/ Jim Crow laws?
Just a preemptive heads-up for everyone: keep this discussion confined to the topic of the public response to the Loving v Virginia decision. If you're unfamiliar with our subreddit rules, take a look at them. In particular, do not bring current events into your answers and do not rely solely on links to Wikipedia and other websites. We expect responders to be knowledgeable about the topic in their own right, not just serving as a replacement for a Google search.
Are you asking about the popular reaction, the reaction among politicians/opinion leaders, or the reaction among jurists and law historians/commentators?
I was really hoping to find a good answer in this thread, and given the number of upvotes, I'm not the only one.
So, I decided to do a little of my own research. I only found one concrete item (I also found anecdotal reports indicating the reaction was mostly "meh" in the north.):
The Loving v. Virginia decision was handed down on June 12, 1967. In 1970, a white man and black woman (Louis Voyer and Phyllis Bett) attempted to get a marriage license in Alabama, and were denied on the basis that it "would be against state law" source. According to the source, it appears they were not given a more specific reason, but the argument of the judge writing this opinion was that, given any other technicality preventing their obtaining a license, the clerk would have offered additional instructions (providing proof of age, residency, etc.), but the clerk offered no additional instruction. The couple actually got married in a neighboring state and returned to Alabama after consulting with a legal assistance office, which also put the lawsuit in motion - interestingly with the US as plaintiff, and not the couple. There's an interesting bit of information in the source about the United States' compelling interest in enforcing its own court decisions.
Like I said, I'd be interested in looking up newspaper editorials (or letters to the editor) from that time in southern newspapers, since that's probably where you'd find the most "meat" of the reaction. Without a 24/7 news cycle, that's where a lot of the reaction would have played out.