There is a momentous Supreme Court Case that stands as a beacon of hope and progress made within the last century. As we celebrate both Black History Month & Valentine’s Day this February, it is essential to recognize the case which shattered the barriers of racial segregation and reaffirmed the fundamental right to love and marry. This case is of course Loving v. Virginia.
June 2, 1958, at the height of civil rights activism in the heart of Jim Crow South, Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, a black woman, married. The couple were forced to marry in Washington, D. C. rather than their home state of Virginia because Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924 made interracial marriage illegal.
Less than ten days later, on July 11, 1958, the local sheriff entered their home at 2:00am and arrested them after they admitted to being a married couple. Richard spent a night in jail and was released on bond but Mildred, who was not allowed to bond, spent three nights in jail before being released into her father’s care. The Judge overseeing their case gave the couple a choice: leave Virginia for 25 years or go to prison. The couple left Virginia and spent the next nine years in exile.
In 1964, Mildred wrote to U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy for help, and a group of ACLU lawyers eagerly took the case. During the appeal process, the Lovings lived together secretly in Virginia. When the appeal finally reached the Supreme Court in 1967, the Loving’s case was argued by two baby lawyers, one who had only been out of law school for two years and the other for just over three years. Neither had experience in federal court. Despite their lack of experience, The Supreme Court’s decision was unanimous: laws banning interracial marriage were unconstitutional, violating both the Due Process and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment. With this historic decision, discriminatory laws banning interracial marriages were overturned in 16 states