Loving v. Virginia: The Freedom to Marry

Happy Black History Month!

All month long I’m centering African American contributions to the history of the United States and beyond! Today’s episode falls on Valentine’s Day, a day where many people intentionally acknowledge their romantic partnerships. In honor of Black History Month, I’m talking about a couple who took the legal acknowledgment of their relationship all the way to the Supreme Court. This is the trailblazing case of Loving v. Virginia, the case that made it legal in 16 states for White people to marry a non-White person in the United States. It also paved the way for same-sex couples' fight for marriage equality many years later.

Mildred Jeter, a part African American and part Native American woman, and Richard Loving, a White man, grew up as neighbors in a small farming community in Caroline County, Virginia. After knowing each other for several years, as he was friendly with her older brother, the two began dating in her teen years. At age 24, Richard proposed to 18-year-old Mildred after learning that they were pregnant. Interracial working and socializing wasn’t unusual in Caroline County, and when interracial couples wanted to marry, they did so in Washington D.C., where interracial marriage was legal. Mildred & Richard were married in June of 1958.

Five weeks later, back in Caroline County, the Sheriff and his officers barged into their home in the middle of night while the newlyweds were in bed asleep. The Sheriff shined flashlights at their faces and demanded to know who the woman was that Richard was sleeping next to. Mildred said, “I’m his wife,” and the Sheriff replied: “Not here you’re not.”

Milestones in African American Children's Literature

The couple was taken to jail for violating the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, a Jim Crow-era law that made it a felony for any White person to marry a Black person—then referred to as “Negroes.” The Act stated that a person was legally classified as “Negro” if they had any traceable “Negro blood.” When it came to who could be considered “White,” the act states: “the term 'white person' shall apply only to the person who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian; but persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the blood of the American Indian and have no other non-Caucasic blood shall be deemed to be white persons.” It’s also important to note that the act did not apply to persons of color from different races wanting to marry. This was a law not meant to protect the “integrity” of all races, rather the specific aim was to preserve the “purity”’ of Whiteness.

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