A ray of sunshine reached down through Britain's gloomy House of Commons last week and glanced brightly off a pale gold wedding ring on the hand of a young Negro in the visitors' gallery. It was a fortuitous spotlighting of a matter then before the House: under sharp debate on the floor was the political consequence of the gleaming wedding ring.
Back in 1948 Oxford-educated Seretse Khama, chief-designate of Bechuanaland's Bamangwato tribe, married a blonde English clerk named Ruth Williams. At first the tribal elders were outraged, but later, after tribal council, they accepted Seretse and his white wife. But...