Loving v Virginia (1967) is the Supreme Court decision that struck down all laws in the US against mixed-race marriages. At the time nearly every Southern state still had such laws. The 9-0 decision was handed down on June 12th 1967 – 50 years ago this past Monday. June 12th is now known as Loving Day.
In May 1958 in Central Point, Virginia, Richard Loving wanted to marry Mildred Jeter. But his birth certificate said he was “white”, hers said she was “coloured”. The Racial Integrity Act of 1924 outlawed such marriages. The law was passed in the name of eugenics, but there had been one law or another in Virginia preventing mixed-race marriages since 1691.
They drove a hundred miles to Washington, DC where they could get married if she put down her race as “Indian”. Although she identified as Black, she was Cherokee on her father’s side and Rappahannock on her mother’s. Like many in Central Point, she was likely triracial (Black, White, Native).
Two months later, back in Virginia, the police caught them in bed together at two in the morning, “cohabiting” “against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth” of Virginia. (The Lovings, who lived in a small town, had left the front door unlocked.) They were arrested and thrown in jail.
The sheriff later said:
“The Lord made sparrows and robins, not to mix with one another.”
The judge said:
“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And, but for the interference with his arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriage. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”
In 1959 he banished them from Virginia for 25 years.
In 1963 Mildred wrote to Robert Kennedy, asking him if the new civil rights bill then in Congress would let them return to Virginia. He said no, but sent her letter on to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in New York. They took the case.
In 1967 the case had reached all the way to the Supreme Court.
The state of Virginia argued:
“these statutes [against mixed-race marriage] serve a legitimate, legislative objective of preventing a sociological, psychological evils which attend interracial marriages […]
“Intermarried families are subjected to much greater pressures and problems than those of the intra-married and that the state’s prohibition of interracial marriage for this reason stands on the same footing as the prohibition of polygamous marriage, or incestuous marriage or the prescription of minimum ages at which people may marry and the prevention of the marriage of people who are mentally incompetent.”
To support its claim it cited the book “Intermarriage, Interfaith, Interracial, Inter-ethnic” (1964), by sociologist (and rabbi) Dr. Albert I. Gordon.
The ACLU argued that the Virginia law violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution, a Reconstruction amendment that promised equal protection and due process of law for all people regardless of race.
Richard Loving argued:
“Tell the court I love my wife.”
– Abagond, 2017.
Sources: Mainly NPR (2017), The Economist (2008), Black Past, Google Images.
See also:
- interracial relationships
- eugenics
- Walter Plecker – the mastermind behind the Racial Integrity Act
- triracial
- Reconstruction
- Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Robert Kennedy
- Native Peoples of the Chesapeake Bay Region
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I very much appreciate the topic presented today, as I have had an opportunity to study the case of Loving v, Virginia completely. While the Courts granted a white man the right to marry outside his race, people still have problems with these relationships. I am not one of them, because it should be a decision by the individuals involved. Policies, though, still harm Black people regardless of who they marry. I wish that part of this nation’s history would change. Great article, and thanks.
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“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And, but for the interference with his arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriage. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” – some Judge, somewhere in Central Point, Commonwealth of Virginia
This is one of the most addlepated opinions I’ve ever read. I surmise that the judge forgot that it was the Europeans, members of his race, who departed that continent upon their own volition and perpetrated untold scores of forcible rape against the “copper tone/Black” race of people already inhabiting the Americas. (smh)
The fulcrum of white supremacy never ceases to amaze me!
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How appropriate that his last name was Loving. My mother told me that her grandfather who was white had to put down that he was “colored” in order to marry her grandma who was African and Choctaw. I guess people don’t give a hoot when they love somebody outside of their “race” and or social class. Thank goodness for that!
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I correct my above statement it was my grandmother who told me about her white grandpa and Afro Native American grandma.
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oh and again: http://wearethe15percent.com/
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May I make a couple comments:
1. Error – should be corrected.
Maryland did not abolish its anti-miscegenation laws until 1967, just weeks before the Loving v. Virginia decision, after the Supreme court proceedings were already in progress:
Reference:
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/engl_258/Lecture%20Notes/american_antimiscegenation.htm
2. Not all states repealed their state statutes after Loving v. Virginia
South Carolina did not do so until 1999. Alabama failed to do so in 1999, but managed to do so in November 2000 (by a bare majority of the electorate).
–> also mentioned in the reference link.
3. Loving v. Virginia was not the only interracial marriage case to appear before the US Supreme Court during the Civil Rights Era
The most famous one was Naim v. Naim (1955), which annulled the marriage between a Chinese man and a white woman in Virginia, a decision upheld in the Virginia Supreme Court. The attorneys made the appeal to the US Supreme Court, but the justices refused to hear it, citing that it was too soon after Brown v. Board.
Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naim_v._Naim
4. Some States banned marriages between Blacks and other non-whites
For example, Maryland banned marriages between Blacks and Filipinos. My godmother is Filipino-American (as were most of my Dad’s friends), and Filipinos could marry neither blacks nor whites nor live in Maryland if they had married either one. Again, only in DC was it allowed.
Reference: same as #1.
Suggested future topics:
Naim v. Naim (1955)
Loving Day (history and current status)
History of Interracial Marriage Bans Between non-white groups.
Final comment:
My parents’ marriage certificate from the District of Columbia (1960) looks identical to the one posted above. I think I will try to make a side-by-side collage to help explain it to my friends.
Virginia was the “Dark Side” in my early childhood. I don’t remember ever crossing the Potomac River into Virginia together with my family at least until 1968. My mother and father traveled together to my grandparents’ home in Alabama for the first time in 1968.
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One more suggestion:
provide a link in the “See Also” for
As Mildred and Richard Loving are featured in that post as well, and there is some mention of the Rappahannock. I don’t think Mildred identified purely as black either. I am certain that she identified as part Native, as least as much as, if not more than she identified as “Negro”. I will comment again if I find those sources.
Further to the above comment:
In addition to the interracial marriage bans between different non-white groups that were instituted by states, some Native tribes also had bans. A prominent one was the Pamunkey, who banned marriages between Indians and Blacks under Plecker.
I am also aware that some tribes in the West prohibited their members from marrying Chinese as well as Blacks. I read about cases where members were banished after having done so.
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“I don’t think Mildred identified purely as black either. I am certain that she identified as part Native, as least as much as, if not more than she identified as “Negro”. I will comment again if I find those sources.” – jefe
Don’t bother putting yourself through such a needless struggle. “Negro” or Native American are terms of contradiction. It’s literally one and the same.
“It comes as a great shock…to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance…has not pledged allegiance to you. It comes as a great shock to see Gary Cooper killing off the Indians, and although you are rooting for Gary Cooper, that the Indians are you.”
“Native Americans were reclassified as Colored (Racial Integrity Act 1924). Jim Crow Laws were a set of oppressive laws not only used for segregation but also reclassified Native American Indians into the category of Colored.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_Integrity_Act_of_1924
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Where can I find me a rich elderly white man with heart ailments? Any suggestions?
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@Herneith,
I’m quite certain that you’ll be able locate “elderly white men with heart ailments” either at the local bingo hall or restocking the shopping carts at your local Walmart. Good luck!
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“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And, but for the interference with his arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriage. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”….
So what was he doing in America?
Do your birth certificates in the states still state your colour on them? I never heard of such a strange thing!
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It states the colour of your parents.
It is also stated on the marriage certificate and the death certificate.
This was often modified during Jim Crow to match whatever requirement the local clerk had.
Many countries have race or ethnicity stated on official documents, especially those that recognize themselves as composed of a multiracial population, and they need to keep those statistics on their citizens. For example, it is stated on state issued ID cards in Singapore, Malaysia, and even China.
In HK, they have a code on the government ID cards indicating whether you are recognized to be of Chinese descent or not.
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Jefe, I’m truly astounded.
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Mildred Jeter was 11 when she and 17-year-old Richard began courting, according to Phyl Newbeck, a Vermont author who detailed the case in the 2004 book, “Virginia Hasn’t Always Been for Lovers.”
She became pregnant a few years later, she and Loving got married in Washington in 1958, when she was 18. Mildred told the AP she didn’t realize it was illegal. – See more at: http://www.legacy.com/ns/mildred-loving-obituary/109079408#sthash.m0gEJ51D.dpuf
I found the above with a google search. The two paragraphs are part of the obit for Mildred Jeter, Why isn’t her age a problem??
I guess race trumps statutory rape.
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“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And, but for the interference with his arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriage. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”
To piggyback on what blakksage said earlier which was:
“This is one of the most addlepated opinions I’ve ever read. I surmise that the judge forgot that it was the Europeans, members of his race, who departed that continent upon their own volition and perpetrated untold scores of forcible rape against the “copper tone/Black” race of people already inhabiting the Americas. (smh)”
It’s also telling how many people use the God/bible excuse to justify their hate and prejudices. To them, God hates everyone who aren’t rich, straight white males who worship only Him.
The judge may have also believed that it was the white man’s prerogative to seize the world and mold it in his image (Manifest Destiny, The White Man’s Burden) as it is considered not as “civilized” as the white race.
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@ jefe
Thanks for the correction and link suggestion.
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@Zoe Jordan
We are a strange people. Ever heard of white and colored water fountains?
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or the one day of the week that blacks were allowed to go to the zoo or the art museum. thats the way it was in my town.
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Three thoughts:
I have been asked, just a few times, whether I encounter any unusual difficulties due to my own interracial marriage. “Oh, man,” I say (in my stock response), “It’s really tough. The male race and the female race. Fundamentally incompatible.”
Bama kept its miscegenation law on the books until it was barely repealed by a vote in 2000. Something like over a half million Bamas voted to keep the law in place. In 2000.
Justice Warren’s opinion in the Loving case is a beautifully written legal opinion, an example of great writing by a great jurist. In contrast, Justice Kennedy’s opinion in the recent Obergefell case (the gay marriage case) is just awful, an exercise in overreach and vainglory, Kennedy trying to be a rock star just because he had a platform. Kennedy should have simply cut and pasted the Loving decision, switching the references from race to gender. Loving was an equal protection case, pure and simple, and Obergefell should also have been. There was no need for Kennedy to crawl down the rabbit hole of “substantive due process”, which is a mostly bullshit legal theory used to reverse engineer results in an intellectually dishonest manner.
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@”Do your birth certificates in the states still state your colour on them? I never heard of such a strange thing!”
Okay, the short form doesn’t always list race, but the hospitals still report it on the long form according to federal law.
The same reporting is obviously done in the UK, otherwise they would not have such exact statistics for the ethnicity of each live birth (down to a tenth of a percent).
From the ONS: “figures are compiled from information supplied when births are registered as part of civil registration, a legal requirement”
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/bulletins/birthcharacteristicsinenglandandwales/2015
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In addition to the ACLU, the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) also made arguments at the US Supreme Court in respect of the Loving v. Virginia case in 1967:
An Unsung Hero in the Story of Interracial Marriage
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/an-unsung-hero-in-the-story-of-interracial-marriage
Virginia did not ban Asians from marrying blacks, but Maryland did.
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i watched the documentary on PBS some years ago with the actual Lovings and will watch Loving 2016 with Oscar and Golden Globe nominee Ruth Negga as Mildred Loving she is great on the AMC show Preacher. Watched another interesting film Free State of Jones the story of Newt Knight a Mississippi man who staged a rebellion against the Confederacy during the Civil War. Newt adopts a former slave named Rachel. Because it is against the law for them to marry they have many children resulting in genrerations of biracial Knights who also would struggle for their right to marry though the year 1949. Great grand son Davis Knight passed as white and wants to marry his white fiance and it is discovered he his black and he is arrested. The family battled miscengenation laws for over 70 years.
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@ Mary Burrell
Wow, that is some story about the Knight family. Thanks for sharing that.
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@ Nomad
Yes I have! An astounding notion – well, segregation is astounding.
I watched a movie on tv last year called ‘White water’ about a little black boy and his endeavour to drink from the white fountain as he thought it would taste better. It was one of those films made to make you feel all fuzzy inside like what a cute little black boy to think the water is different and how all the white folks in the town find his cute little black antics cute too. Cos, u know, obviously that’s how it was in the South in the 1950’s!
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@ Resw
We have ethnicity forms to fill out for nearly everything. Supposedly for diversity statistics. They are never compulsory.
Our ethnicity is not stated on any official documents that I know of.
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@Zoe Jordan
It’s not compulsory for American parents to report their baby’s race either, by the way. But as I said, the hospitals report it, and the same happens in the UK with regard to ethnicity.
This is from the UK’s ONS guide to birth statistics:
“The birth notification is a document completed by the doctor or midwife present at the birth. The notification provides certain data items, such as the birthweight and ethnicity of the baby (as stated by the mother), to the birth record. National Health Service Act 2006 (amended 2013) and National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006, require notification of a birth to the local authority and Clinical Commissioning Group (Local Health Board in Wales) where the birth occurred”
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@ Zoe Jordan
Same in the US. Filling it in is Completely Voluntary. But I have found that sometimes they fill it in for you behind your back, like at schools and hospitals, or, if you leave it blank or put Other, you are assumed to be Black, like at monster.com. So the Completely Voluntary bit is something of a farce. Only once, when I was applying for a bank loan, did they become Very Insistent that I fill in the Completely Voluntary question about race.
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@ resw and abagond
Yes, that’s true. The mother can of course refuse to give that information. Very few probably do. I have to say when I gave birth to my daughter I don’t recall being asked her ethnicity, although I guess the question could have been sneaked in. She is known as white other on those forms as her Father is German! I don’t fill them in the same as I never fill in questionnaires or surveys. I find them a bit big brothery and scary. I’m a bit paranoid about being too documented, although now days its pretty impossible not to be. I use social media, have an i phone, when I travel my retinas are scanned and the police have my DNA and finger prints since about 5 years ago. I’d like the idea of going straw man but I’m too conformist when it comes down to it!
Banks are a government unto themselves, they probably thought if you’re black you can’t afford to pay it back! I’ve not heard of the forms being filled out for one here but thinking about it, it wouldn’t surprise me at all.
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I was just in Caroline County, Virginia at a remembrance dinner for a recently deceased Native American local resident.
The attendees told me that they remember Mildred Loving, and she was a member of the Virginia American Indian Council.
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