Mildred Loving, the Woman Who Made Interracial Marriage Legal Across the U.S.
Five years later, Mildred Loving wrote to then U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy asking for help. He referred her to the American Civil Liberties Union, which took up her case and argued it all the way to the Supreme Court. Nearly a decade after the Lovings were banished from Virginia, the highest court in the land handed down a landmark ruling overturning state miscegenation laws.
Mildred Loving passed away on May 2 at age 68. Today her story is told in the New York Times:
Mrs. Loving and her husband, Richard, were in bed in their modest house in Central Point in the early morning of July 11, 1958...when the county sheriff and two deputies, acting on an anonymous tip, burst into their bedroom and shined flashlights in their eyes. A threatening voice demanded, “Who is this woman you’re sleeping with?”Mildred had to fight to make it good in Virginia and in the 16 other states that banned interracial unions at the time of their marriage. She died in Central Point, back home in the state that had turned her away so many years ago.Mrs. Loving answered, “I’m his wife.”
Mr. Loving pointed to the couple’s marriage certificate hung on the bedroom wall. The sheriff responded, “That’s no good here.”
Despite every impediment placed in her way, she lived up to the last name she took in marriage. She was Loving in every sense of the word, and she made loving across the racial divide no longer a crime, but a human right.
Comments
I thank the Universe for people like Richard and Mildred Loving. I hope that their obstinate courage has been inherited by their children. I hope that modern blacks who have made it via urban scholarships to Ivy League schools will learn from Mildred and Richard what it means to KNOW ONESSELF.
I hope that the black church which did not support them can learn about love that can win battles without churching all day Sunday.Her sense of self stood out when Mildred with more commonsense and wisdom than edumacation, fought for her rights as a human whose slave ancestors blood lies beneath every Southern Plantation.
It’s a very unforunate fact that there’s only a few good black men, compared to the white men. Now black women want a peice of the Great White that their ancestors fought against, mainly due to slavery issues. Hopefully this new wave, will take them down a notch so they can get off their high horse about the past, start living in the future and stop acting like society owes them something all the time! Native Americans were slaves too, I don’t see them crying wolf over every littl thing.
Desecendant Native American, though you have the right to express how you feel, I strongly disagree that this is what black women are doing, or that they act like ’society owes them something.’ When we look at the disproportionate number of black men who are incarcerated, African American women clearly carry tremendous burdens as single heads of household in many communities.
As for the Lovings, they stood up for what they believed. Who we love is serendipitous, and anyone who dares to cross cultural boundaries is to be applauded for not being brainwashed by the larger culture.
I am the child of a interracial marriage, and as a half-Japanese child born within recent memory of World War II, I endured a good amount of prejudice, as did my Japanese mother who moved to the US to be with my white father. It takes a lot of strength to cross cultural lines. I don’t think my mother wanted a piece of the Great White. She just fell in love and wanted to spend the rest of her life with a man whose race didn’t matter to her.
We are not a society that deals comfortably with those we have held in bondage in the past. That includes our treatment of Native Americans. I’m sorry that you’ve experienced difficulty, but I hope you can find common threads between your heritage and others who have been oppressed, instead of tearing each other apart.
BRAVO WOMENSISSUES!!!!! Very, very, well said, Linda.
womenissues,
Clearly in point, I based my comment on what you said about “When we look at the dis-proportionate number of black men who are incarcerated”, Sorry about there luck! there was an episode done on this perhaps on Oprah, and yes black women are searching outside there grounds, due to ill-literate, drop out and criminal-minded black men. What better man could a black women ask for, LOL. Waaaah. Surely with your experience in life, you see and know how blacks think there Crap Don’t Stink! It happens in the work place more than not, because they will cry wolf against an employer based on prejudice, even if thats not really the case. This what I’m talking about in regards to High Hors, there are other issues, I know they try to sling their heritage up against, and for what? The easy way to get money! Doing just like there counter-halfs that ended up going to prison.
As for you, I can cleary see the uproar involving this relationship, my father served the Navy and retired, while overseas he met a beautiful Tiawanese lady, my adoptive mother. I don’t see a thing wrong with this, but I do think women of a poorer country do seek the great white and white men traveling aboard have their images of foreign culture women.
I imagine there are alot of veterans thats don’t care for the Japanese. Thats just the way it is, my aplaude for your endurance over the years and sorry about your luck.
As for me I should say that I’am 50% Irish 50% Native American, perhaps I was an ousted, and adopted out due to mix. Sorry about my luck right!
Have a Happy Mothers Day!
Des.Native American, I have African American friends who actually hesitate to speak up in the workplace because they’re afraid of other people perceiving that they’re playing the race card - and being accused of exactly what you’re saying about them.
I understand these things are difficult - my mother, growing up in Japan where there are almost no black people was incredibly racist. But I would just ask you to consider others who read this, including African American women who would certainly be hurt by your remarks. It’s a stereotype that too many people buy into, and it’s wrong and keeps us a racially divided country. I know, based on what you write, that you’re better than that.
Gee I really was paying attention to Des Native American thinking there was a really troubled soul until I saw ‘that’s just the ay it is’ said in response to maybe that’s why veterans (some)don’t care for Japanese..that’s just sstupid..’that’s just the way it is”! Oh please give me strength..no use trying to reason with such overwhelming bigotry, and ignorance