Mildred and Richard Loving- Put faces
to the names and the case Loving v. Virginia 1967
The above picture is of Mildred and Richard Loving. They actually lived
in Virginia, which is today uses a campaign to attract tourists called,
“Virgina is for lovers”.
The past events might make you question, is Virginia really for lovers?
The couple Richard and Mildred were married in 1958 in Washington, D.C. They
then went back home to Virginia. One night while the married couple were at
home asleep for the night, three police officers busted into their house with
flashlights and told them their marriage certificate was not valid. They were
arrested, because interracial marriage was not legal in Virginia at the time.
They were threatened with jail time of 1 year each. An agreement was made in
which neither of them had to serve any jail time as long as they moved out of
Virginia for 25 years.
They did move to Washington and after 5 years they really missed their
family and friends in Virginia. They fought and had help from the ACLU. Their
case reached the Supreme Court. The case was tried and Chief Justice Earl Warren
delivered the opinion, on June 12, 1967. He said, “anti-miscegenation laws
"deprive the Lovings of liberty" and that the "freedom to marry
has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the
orderly pursuit of happiness” (Warren, 1967).
Today, a grass
roots holiday was created honoring the Supreme Court decision allowing mixed
race marriages. The holiday is called Loving Day. Loving Day is the biggest
multiracial celebration in the U.S. There is website also which helps educated
people about the history of multiracial marriages. www.lovingday.org
Perfectly said. Interracial marriages happens all over and if people can't accept it, it is their problem. I always tell my children never judge a book by its cover. Its ludacrist that society can't accept it. It stems from generation after generation and brainwashed on the back end. Racism eventually can turn into violence. Violence then in turn may turn to death. Is it ever going to stop?
ReplyDeleteI doubt it is ever going to stop. This was a great example to talk about in this blog, and I never heard of loving day, I want to look it up and read more about it. This couple was so brave and their love must have been so strong and true, to go through what they did.
ReplyDelete