Mildred and Richard Loving Mildred Jeter Loving (1939-2008)
Richard Loving (1933-1975)
Mildred Jeter was born in 1939. She was of African and Rappahannock (Native American) descent.
Robert Loving was born in 1933. He was of Caucasian (white) descent.
Mildred and Richard were childhood sweethearts in Caroline County, Virginia. When they grew up, they decided to marry.
The marriage laws in Virginia said that no white person could marry a non-white person, so the Lovings were married in June, 1958 in Washington..
After they returned home, the local sheriff burst into their bedroom and arrested Mr. and Mrs. Loving.
To avoid going to jail, the couple had to leave Virginia.
The Lovings moved to Washington, but in time were frustrated that they could not visit their families in Virginia.
in 1963, Mrs. Loving wrote the US Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, who referred her case to the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). The case was taken all the way to the US Supreme Court.
On June 12, 1967. the Supreme Court ruled that the laws forbidding inter-racial marriages were unconstitutional.
After the Supreme Court decision, Mr. and Mrs. Loving moved back to Virginia to raise their own three children.
Mildred and Richard Loving supported everyone's right to marry.
In honor of the Lovings, June 12th is known as Loving Day - a day to celebrate mixed-race marriages.
Cornell University Law School: Loving v. Virginia: Opinion of the Supreme Court
Wikipedia: Mildred Loving
Wikipedia: Loving v. Virginia
NPR: Forty Years of Interracial Marriages
40th Anniversary: Loving For All
Page created May 10, 2007. Anne Pemberton. Updated Sat, May 10, 2008 . AP.
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