June 12, 2012 - Loving Day

nDidnyou know that, in many places, it used to be against the law for anwhite person to marry a black person?

nCrazy,nhuh?

nAndnit wasn’t hundreds and hundreds of years ago! I was alive—anteenager!— when the U.S. Supreme Court declared laws againstninterracial marriage unconstitutional. This decision was announced onnthis date in 1967.

nYounmight think that the day is called “Loving Day” in honor of thisnhistoric anniversary because the decision meant that two people whonlove each other could marry, no matter their “race” or “color.”nBut, actually, the case was called Loving v. Virginia because thencouple who brought the case to court were Mildred and Richard Loving.nSeriously, that was their last name! How perfect is that?
n

n Mildrednwas black and Rappahannock (Native American), and Richard was white.nThey had gotten married in the District of Columbia, where “mixednmarriage” wasn’t illegal, in June of 1958, but they lived innVirgina. A group of police officers burst into their house and evenntheir bedroom and there arrested the Lovings for being married! Thencouple pled guilty and were sentenced to one year in prison—butnthey could get out of going to jail by moving to another state.
n

nOfncourse, they chose to move to another state.

You can check out the official
Loving Day website and
merchandise here.

nRichardnand Mildred Loving moved to the District of Columbia. A few yearsnafter that the American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion in thenVirginia state trial court to “vacate the judgment” because thenViriginia law against mixed marriage was a bad law. The ACLU saidnthat the law was unconstitutional, based on people’s rights as setnout in the Fourteenth Amendment.

nAndnfrom that 1963 filing until 1967, the court case moved through anseries of lawsuits, until it finally reached the Supreme Court and anvery good – and final – decision.