Mildred Loving's challenge of Virginia's anti-miscegenation law led to the Supreme Court's 1967 decision (Loving v. Virginia) which affirmed the right of people of different races to marry. Loving and her white husband, Richard, were arrested when they returned home to their rural Virginia town and pled guilty to "cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth." It was illegal for whites and blacks to marry in at least 17 states at the time. In its landmark unanimous ruling the Court stated: "There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry soley because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the equal protection clause." My parents married in 1965 in Denmark; it was illegal for them to marry in South Carolina, the location of my father's next assignment. When my father's work superiors found out that he had married a white woman, he was relocated to the Pacific Northwest instead.
Mildred Loving died Monday at the age of 68. I thank her for her bravery, for opening up a new chapter on racial conciliation, and for her belief in love without barriers.
Last year Mixed Chicks Chat did a special video edition to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Loving Decision. Check it out:
