Davis Knight, a 23-year-old Navy veteran, lights a cigarette in Ellisville, Miss., on Dec. 19, 1948. Knight was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison on a charge that he committed miscegenation by marrying a white woman. Until 1967, Mississippi law prohibited interracial marriages involving a white person and anyone with one-eighth or more black heritage. The state contended that Knightâs great grandmother was black. (AP Photo)