Happy Loving Day

Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967), was a landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924", unconstitutional, thereby overturning Pace v. Alabama (1883) and ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.

Today marks 41 years that whites and non-whites have been able to legally marry each other in this country.  Plaintiffs Richard (white) and Mildred (black) Loving faced a prison sentence for residing in Virginia, wedding in D.C., then returning to Virginia as a mixed race married couple.  The ACLU and several churches stood up behind the Lovings as they fought and won a monumental case that ended Virginia's Racial Integrity Act and eventually legalized mixed race marriages in all of the United States. 

The Supreme Court ruled that "marriage is one of the 'basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law."

Richard Loving died in a car accident in 1975 and Mildred Loving died of pneumonia just last month.

I try not to get too preachy around here (especially twice in one week- whoa) but doesn't it seem ridiculous that only 41 years ago it was illegal for a white person and a non-white person to get married?  And how ridiculous will it sound 41 years from now to remember when this country's government denied this very civil right to same sex couples?  I mean Goddamn, people.

LovingDay.org

Comments

[Ciaran]

Respect. And how perfect was it that they were named Loving?

[Bexley]

Now, that's just silly. They'll have cured gay by then. All that stem cell research.

[Dave]

Back in the 60s, my father grew up in a strict, catholic family. He had a brother who was outed because he dated and later married a black woman. Even as I grew up, the family refused to talk about the "black" woman. Very, very, sad.

[Sarah Buckley]

I am lucky I grew up with a Dad who was arrested marching with Dr King. Both of my parents have always been very racially open and color had never been a issue for them. They do however hate smokers so I can date any person I want but if they were a smoker oh that would not be cool.

[Jeremy]

Not so much ridiculous as it is just plain gross. And a humbling reminder at just how RECENT that is.

It's sort of ironic that the word "humanity" exists when there is so little of it out in the world.

[Rand]

We have had Gay Marriage In Ontario since 1995 and contrary to what the Neo-Cons and some religions said its still the same place as it was before the only thing that has changed is that two people who are in love who want wed are allowed to if they are the same gender.

[Nayana Anthony]

I was in an interracial marriage for five years. I can't comprehend that someone could ever tell me that was wrong. Same goes for people who happen to love others of the same gender. How could you stand up and say "you are not allowed to be in love"?

[Bexley]

But marriage is always wrong.

[Ciaran]

I'm with Bexley.