In 1869, North Carolina actively prosecuted forbidden love. North Carolina Supreme Court cases, State v. Wesley Hairston and Puss Williams and State v. Alexander Reinhardt and Alice Love, demonstrate justices’ efforts to uphold the anti-miscegenation law. But the law did not prevent interracial couples from love, as demonstrated in two 1877 state supreme court cases, State v. Pink Ross and Sarah Ross and State v. Isaac Kennedy and Mag Kennedy. How did mixed raced couples attempt to legitimate their love within the bounds of the law?