ESL 285 Laney CollegeHB Reading & Writing Name: __________________

A Civil Rights Case: Loving v. Virginia (1967)

Only forty-nine years ago, interracial marriage (marriage between two people of different races) was illegal in

the U.S. This changed in 1967, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a landmark civil rights case, which we

now know as the Loving v. Virginia case. The case was about Mildred Loving, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a

white man, who had been sentenced to a year in prison in Virginia for marrying each other.

Richard and Mildred Loving were childhood sweethearts. They got married in Washington D. C. and then came

home to Virginia to live and be near their families. A month after they came home to Virginia, the police came to their

home at 2 a.m. and arrested them and put them in jail. Their one-year jail sentence was suspended if they agreed to

leave the state of Virginia and they moved to Washington D. C. After 5 years of sneaking back to visit their families,

they asked for help from the American Civil Liberties Union. This led to the Supreme Court decision.

Mildred and Richard’s marriage violated the state's law, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited

marriage between people classified as "white" and people classified as "colored". The Supreme Court's unanimous

decision determined that this prohibition was unconstitutional, and it ended all race-based legal restrictions on

marriage in the U.S.

The decision of this case changed history. Beginning in 2013, it was cited as precedent in U.S. federal court

decisions regarding restrictions on same-sex marriage in the United States. The 12 photographs below show the

tenderness and family support enjoyed by Mildred, Richard and their three children: Peggy, Sidney and Donald. The

photos were taken by a photographer named Grey Villet.

Richard Loving kissing wife Mildred as he arrives home from work in King and Queen County, Virginia, April 1965

The Loving's children Peggy, Sidney and Donald play in King and Queen County, Virginia in April 1965

Mildred Loving greets husband Richard on their front porch in King and Queen County, Virginia, April 1965

Richard and Mildred Loving with their children Peggy, Donald and Sidney in their living room in King and Queen County, Virginia, April 1965

Mildred and Richard Loving, their daughter Peggy, Mildred's sister, Garnet, and Richard's mother, Lola, on the porch of Mildred's mother's house, Caroline County, Virginia in April 1965

Richard and Mildred Loving sit in the open door of a car celebrating Richard's winning race, Sumerduck dragway in Sumerduck, Virginia, April 1965

Mildred and Richard Loving in their home. They had been arrested in 1958, shortly after their marriage

In 1967, the US Supreme Court, in a unanimous verdict, ruled in the Loving's favor in 'Loving v. Virginia' and overturned Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute

Left, Mildred and Richard Loving speak with their American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in May 1965. Right, Mildred walks with her daughter near their home in Caroline County, Virginia the same year

Richard Loving and his son sit on a sofa in their home in Central Point, Caroline County, Virginia, May 196 - two years before the U.S Supreme court threw out the law banning interracial marriage

Mildred (center) and Richard Loving (left), with their daughter, on the front steps of the home of Richard Loving's mother (right) in Central Point, Caroline County, Virginia, May 1965

Adapted from:: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088040/Photographs-Lovings-interracial-marriage-time-banned-16-states.html#ixzz400qE4wMf