Mildred and Richard Loving were in love, so they did what many couples do. They got married. But it was 1958. And because she was black and he was white, the state of Virginia deemed their marriage illegal.
The Lovings would fight a legal battle all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which would establish that state governments could not prohibit interracial marriages (individual states define marriage laws in the United States).
The Passionate Lovings
The Lovings had married in the District of Columbia (Washington), where interracial marriage was legal at the time. But they lived in Virginia, whose laws made their union a crime. When charged, the Lovings pled guilty, and a local judge suspended their one-year prison sentence on the condition that they leave Virginia, which they did, opting to live in the District of Columbia.
Several years later, in 1963, with the help of U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy and the American Civil Liberties Union, the couple began their legal journey to the highest court in the land.
Invoking the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees all Americans equal protection under the law, the Supreme Court overturned the Virginia judge’s decision and declared the laws of “racial purity” unconstitutional.
“Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State,” wrote Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren in a decision that made interracial marriage legal across the United States.
Open Hearts
Lucas Irwin, 35, a chef at a Japanese restaurant set to open soon in Washington, said, “I love that they didn’t give up.”
Irwin said that if it weren’t for the Lovings, his own white mother and half-Japanese father might not have been able to marry in the 1980s.
Since the 1967 decision, the United States has seen a steady increase in new marriages between people of different races — from just 3% to 17% of marriages in the U.S., with the fastest growth among Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites.
Households formed by interracial/ethnic couples have increased in all U.S. states.
Kim Parker of the Pew Research Center says the Loving case “opened the door for people,” ushering in acceptance of these marriages. It is easier for people to marry outside their race when they do not face resistance, she said, “whether from family, community, or society at large.”
Parker, who directs research on social trends in the U.S., said that besides the Loving case, two other factors are at play.
The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 brought millions of Asian and Latino immigrants to the United States and ended quotas that favored Europeans. Today’s Americans are more diverse.
And, Parker said, young adults today see interracial marriages not only as acceptable but as something good for America.
Source: share.america.gov, By Lenore T. Adkins