CHAPTER 423.

Passed Mar.
22,1867.

AN ACT entitled "an Act to amend article sixty
of the Code of Public General Laws entitled
"Licenses," by adding thereto additional sec-
tions, relating to Marriages of people of color.

Sections ad-
ded.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly
of Maryland, That the following sections be added
to article sixty of the Code of Public General Laws
to come in after section eight :

Marriages
made valid.

Sec. 9. All marriages, heretofore made and cel-
ebrated in this State by and between colored peo-
ple are hereby confirmed and made valid, to every
intent and purpose, from the time of the celebra-
tion of such marriages, respectively, and every
such marriage shall be held and taken by all
Courts of this State to be good and sufficient in

Proviso.

law, to all intents and purposes; provided, that
in every case the parties claiming to have been
married, by a competent person, shall by sufficient
proof before some Justice of the Peace establish
the fact of having been so married, a certificate of
which shall be filed with the Clerk of the Circuit
Court of the County in which said marriage was
celebrated, or the Court of Common Pleas of Bal-
timore City, and be preserved with the Register
of Marriage Licenses in the office of the said Clerk.

License re-
quired.

Sec. 10. In all marriages hereafter celebrated
between colored persons, the parties or some one
in their behalf, shall present to the Clergyman sol-
emnizing the rites of a marriage, a license, as
required in other cases of marriage; and any such
Clergyman is hereby prohibited from solemnizing
such marriage without the production of licences.

In forces

Sec. 2. And be it enacted. That this Act shall
take effect from the date of its passage.