Revered black author Toni Morrison writes succinctly about interracial relationships in her 1973 novel "Sula." Morrison touches upon the fact that it is often acceptable for men to date women of a different race but not for women to date men outside of their racial community. In the voice of the narrator, she writes, "the willingness of black men to lie in the beds of white women [was not] a consideration that might lead them toward tolerance."
Set in the mid-1960s at the height of the civil rights movement, Sue Monk Kidd's "The Secret Life of Bees" focuses on a romance between Lily, the white teenage protagonist of the novel, and Zach, the black godson of August, a beekeeper who takes in Lily and her family's maid. Though Zach and Lily try to deny their attraction to one another, they cannot, even though they know that no one will ever accept their relationship. The book's conclusion finds Zach promising Lily that they will one day be together.
"Ramona," one of the earlier novels to approach the concept of standing up for loving someone who is a different race or ethnicity, was written by Helen Hunt Jackson in 1884. The novel details the plight of a girl with Native American and Scottish heritage who falls in love with a Native American sheepherder named Alessandro while growing up in Southern California. In the wake of her foster mother's death, Ramona is looked after by her foster mother's sister Senora Moreno. When Moreno learns of Ramona's relationship with Alessandro, she discourages and shuns her.
Mildred D. Taylor's historical novel finds protagonist Cassie Logan's cousin Bud visiting the Logan family after having spent time in the northern United States and announcing that he has married a white woman. The news leaves the family reeling, prompting Cassie to note, "White people were part of another world, distant strangers who ruled our lives and were better left alone."