So, did you know there are three different ways states define “child marriage,” and that’s why sources disagree:

States with NO minimum age at all.

States with a full ban (18, no exceptions)

States with a minimum age + exceptions

It is now 2026, and child marriage is still legal in 33–34 U.S. states. Only 17 states and D.C. have fully banned it with no exceptions. Three states — California, Mississippi, and New Mexico — still have no minimum age at all, meaning a child of any age can legally be married with the right combination of parental or judicial approval. Between 2000 and 2021, over 315,000 minors were legally married in the U.S., and 86% of those marriages were between a minor girl and an adult man. Despite public assumptions, the U.S. still has one of the weakest child‑marriage protections in the developed world.

States that have fully banned child marriage (18, no exceptions)

17 states + D.C.

• Delaware
• New Jersey
• Pennsylvania
• Minnesota
• Rhode Island
• New York
• Massachusetts
• Vermont
• Connecticut
• Michigan
• Washington
• Virginia
• New Hampshire
• Maine
• Oregon
• Missouri
• Oklahoma
• District of Columbia

These are the only places where child marriage is truly abolished.

It’s time for America to evolve from the misogynistic values of the 1600s to a future where no child’s life is shaped by outdated laws that were never meant to protect them. ~ Nativergrl77

(Sources: World Population Review, LegalClarity, FreedomUnited, Wikipedia)

So, as of June 2020, in the 40 states that have set a marriage age by statute, the lower minimum marriage age when all exceptions are taken into account, are:

• 2 states have a minimum age of 14: Alaska and North Carolina
• 3 states have a minimum age of 15.
• 21 states have a minimum age of 16.
• 10 states have a minimum age of 17.
• 4 states have a minimum age of 18.

The Koski/Heymann study found prevalence of child marriage varied from more than 10 per 1,000 in West Virginia, Hawaii and North Dakota to less than four per 1,000 in Maine, Rhode Island and Wyoming.^[29]

• In Texas from 2000 to 2014, almost 40,000 children were married.^[30][31]
• In Florida, 16,400 children, some as young as 13, were married from 2000–2017, which is the second highest incidence of child marriage after Texas.^[15]
• In Alabama there were over 8,600 child marriages from 2000 to 2015, the fourth highest amount of any state. However, child marriage in Alabama showed a large decline in that time. In 2000, almost 1,200 children married, but by 2014 it dropped to 190.^[31]
• In Virginia between 2004 and 2013, nearly 4,500 children were married according to the Tahirih Justice Center.^[32]
• In Ohio from 2000 to 2015 there were 4,443 girls married aged 17 and younger, including 43 aged 15 and under.^[33]
• In New York, more than 3,800 children were married between 2000 and 2010.^[34]

The Koski/Heymann also found that only 20% of married children were living with their spouses; the majority of the rest were living with their parents.^[29]

Source: wiki … yes please, definitely correct wiki if the information is foul

1097 – The Crusaders defeated the Turks at Dorylaeum.

1841 – The Erie Railroad rolled out its first passenger train.

1859 – Charles Blondin became the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

1894 – Korea declared independence from China and asked for Japanese aid.

1908 – A meteor explosion in Siberia knocked down trees in a 40-mile radius and struck people unconscious some 40 miles away.

1912 – Belgian workers went on strike to demand universal suffrage.

1913 – Fighting broke out between Bulgaria and Greece and Spain. It was the beginning of the Second Balkan War.

1915 – During World War I, the Second Battle Artois ended when the French failed to take Vimy Ridge.

1921 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding appointed former President William Howard Taft chief justice of the United States.

1922 – Irish rebels in London assassinate Sir Henry Wilson, the British deputy for Northern Ireland.

1930 – France pulled its troops out of Germany’s Rhineland.

1934 – Adolf Hitler purged the Nazi Party by destroying the SA and bringing to power the SS in the “Night of the Long Knives.”

1935 – Fascists caused an uproar at the League of Nations when Haile Selassie of Ethiopia speaks.

1936 – Margaret Mitchell’s book, “Gone with the Wind,” was published.

1950 – U.S. President Harry Truman ordered U.S. troops into Korea and authorizes the draft.

1951 – On orders from Washington, General Matthew Ridgeway broadcasts that the United Nations was willing to discuss an armistice with North Korea.

1953 – The first Corvette rolled off the Chevrolet assembly line in Flint, MI. It sold for $3,250.

1955 – The U.S. began funding West Germany’s rearmament.

1957 – The American occupation headquarters in Japan was dissolved.

1958 – The U.S. Congress passed a law authorizing the admission of Alaska as the 49th state in the Union.

1960 – The Katanga province seceded from Congo (upon Congo’s independence from Belgium).

1964 – The last of U.N. troops left Congo after a four-year effort to bring stability to the country.

1970 – The Cincinnati Reds moved to their new home at Riverfront Stadium.

1971 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government could not prevent the Washington Post or the New York Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers.

1971 – The Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 11 returned to Earth. The three cosmonauts were found dead inside.

1971 – The 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified when Ohio became the 38th state to approve it. The amendment lowered the minimum voting age to 18.

1974 – Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defected in Toronto, Canada.

1974 – The July 4th scene from the Steven Spielberg movie “Jaws” was filmed.

1977 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced his opposition to the B-1 bomber.

1986 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states could outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults.

1998 – Officials confirmed that the remains of a Vietnam War serviceman buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery were identified as those of Air Force pilot Michael J. Blassie.

2000 – U.S. President Clinton signed the E-Signature bill to give the same legal validity to an electronic signature as a signature in pen and ink.

2004 – The international Cassini spacecraft entered Saturn’s orbit. The craft had been on a nearly seven-year journey.

1968 – “Solidarity Day” rally at Resurrection City, things to remember

“Solidarity Day” rally at Resurrection City

On June 19, 1968, a long-term anti-poverty demonstration known as Resurrection City reaches its high-water mark. On “Solidarity Day,” over 50,000 people flock to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to protest, sing, hear speeches and demonstrate on behalf of national legislation to address the plight of the American poor. “Today is really only the beginning,” Rev. Ralph Abernathy tells the crowd. “We will not give up the battle until the Congress of the United States decides to open the doors of America and allow the nation’s poor to enter as full-fledged citizens into this land of wealth and opportunity.”

In May 1968, poor people from all over the country came to the National Mall and made temporary homes in plywood shelters, creating a settlement they called Resurrection City. The protest began less than two months after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and grew out of the Poor People’s Campaign and the campaign for an Economic Bill of Rights, both of which had been major focuses of King’s at the time of his death. The goal was to convince legislators of the need for laws that would lift poor people of all races out of poverty, and to sway public opinion by making the plight of the poor impossible to ignore. Protesters came from all over the country—“caravans” drove from as far away as Los Angeles and Seattle while a “Freedom Train” brought people from Memphis and one group from Marks, Mississippi rode mule-drawn wagons.

Marches and demonstrations took place in Washington as more and more activists arrived throughout May, including a Mother’s Day march organized by the National Welfare Rights Organization and led by Coretta Scott King. Ethel Kennedy, wife of Sen. Robert Kennedy, was involved with the demonstrations, and his funeral procession stopped at Resurrection City on June 8, following his assassination on June 5. Businesses, schools and other fixtures of normal life flourished within the settlement, which also saw conflicts stemming from animosities between different groups living there, leadership disputes and the inherent uncertainty of living in makeshift dwellings on the National Mall.

Anna Julia Haywood Cooper was a writer, teacher, and activist who championed education for African Americans and women. Born into bondage in 1858 in Raleigh, North Carolina, she was the daughter of an enslaved woman, Hannah Stanley, and her owner, George Washington Haywood

Source: Internet

Operation Wetback: Use military to deport 1.3M Mexicans ~ Q: was this said in the Oval Office?

Operation Wetback was an immigration law enforcement initiative created by Joseph Swing, the Director of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, in cooperation with the Mexican government.

The program was implemented in June 1954 by U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell. The short-lived operation used military-style tactics to remove Mexican immigrants—some of them American citizens—from the United States. Though millions of Mexicans had legally entered the country through joint immigration programs in the first half of the 20th century, Operation Wetback was designed to send them back to Mexico.

The U.S. Border Patrol packed Mexican immigrants into trucks when transporting them to the border for deportation during Operation Wetback.

In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower launched Operation Wetback, a shameful initiative to remove (often violently) thousands of undocumented workers–mostly Mexican nationals. In what has been described as a “quasi-military operation”, border patrol agents, along with state and local law enforcement methodically targeted Mexican-Americans. The result was widespread fear and abuse.

It is estimated that 4,800 people were apprehended on the first day of the military operation. In the end, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) claimed as many as 1,300,000 were deported–many on their own out of fear. There were reports of beatings. Hundreds of families were torn apart. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Source: Fox News latino.foxnews.com OpEd , Mar 29, 2013

Fact Check: Operation Wetback deported 2.1Million Mexicans, not 13Million   A heavily-circulated email states:

“What did Hoover, Truman, and Eisenhower have in common? Hoover ordered the deportation of ALL illegal aliens in order to make jobs available to American citizens; Truman deported over two million Illegals after WWII to create jobs for returning veterans; then Eisenhower deported 13 million Mexican Nationals!”

Is it true? This distortion of history but has picked up momentum as the immigration debate has heated up again. This e-mail’s message is bogus for all three presidents. Details:

Eisenhower did not deport 13 million Mexicans. Only 1/10 that number was ever claimed by the federal officials in charge of “Operation Wetback,” and even that figure is criticized as inflated by guesswork. Officially, just over 2.1 million were recorded as having been deported or having departed under threat of deportation. None of these presidents presided over any general deportation campaign.

Source: FactCheck 2010: “Hoover, Truman & Ike: Mass Deporters?” , Jul 9, 2010

1955: Mexican border “secured” after Operation Wetback . Truman’s successor pushed harder than Truman did, presiding over what was officially called “Operation Wetback,” a vigorous, federally led effort to remove illegal Mexican immigrants from the Southwest. (The term “wetback” is a disparaging term applied to Mexicans who swam or waded across the Rio Grande River–and today is considered an ethnic slur.)

“Operation Wetback” lasted only a few months, deporting about 2.1 million Mexicans. It was announced June 9, 1954. It encompassed “mopping up” activities in northern cities as well, which removed 20,174 illegal Mexican aliens from industrial jobs.

The INS reported by 1955: “The so-called ‘wetback’ problem no longer exists. This is no longer, as in the past, a problem in border control. The border has been secured.” More than half a century later, history has shown that official claim to be a fantasy.

Source: FactCheck 2010: “Hoover, Truman & Ike: Mass Deporters?” , Jul 9, 2010

Op Ed: Treated Mexican border crossings as act of war In 1954, when Eisenhower discovered a million Mexicans here who did not belong, without apology he ordered them sent home in “Operation Wetback.” They went. Had Vicente Fox’s regime colluded in an invasion of the US, as it has for the last 6 years, those presidents would have regarded and treated it as an act of war.

What explains the paralysis of the present White House? George Bush has taken an oath to see to it that the laws of the US are faithfully executed. The immigration laws are clear.

Source: State of Emergency, by Pat Buchanan, p. 17 , Oct 2, 2007

Change immigration quotas to be less discriminatory. There is one sphere in which civil rights are inevitably involved in Federal legislation. This is the sphere of immigration.

It is a manifest right of our Government to limit the number of immigrants our Nation can absorb. It is also a manifest right of our Government to set reasonable requirements on the character and the numbers of the people who come to share our land and our freedom. It is well for us, however, to remind ourselves occasionally of an equally manifest fact: we are–one and all– immigrants or sons and daughters of immigrants.

Existing legislation contains injustices. It does, in fact, discriminate. I am informed that it was realized, at the time of its enactment, that future study of the basis of determining quotas would be necessary.

I am therefore requesting the Congress to review this legislation and to enact a statute that will at one and the same time guard our legitimate national interests and be faithful to our basic ideas of freedom and fairness to all.

Sources: wiki  and internet

So, the question for Americans is… what is the definition of American Values after the era of trump seemingly exposed some ill will?

-Nativegrl77