June 12 is Loving Day

 

I am writing about my family history because June 12 is Loving Day.  

When you grow up bi-racial, your parents are just that “your parents.”  It never occurred to me that at one point in the history of this country, my parents being married was against the law until one day my late dad who had a tendency to randomly give us historically based law lessons (no surprise, he was an attorney) blurts out “you know if not for Loving V. Virginia, your mother and I would be in jail for being married.” My sister and I just stared at him in stunned amazement. He, of course, went into great detail about the Lovings and their case.

So who were the Lovings?  Mildred Loving, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were a married couple living in rural Virginia. They were sentenced to a year in prison in Virginia for marrying each other and breaking the states anti-miscegenation law. They had to live in Washington, D.C and had to sneak into Virginia to visit their family. At some point, Mrs. Loving couldn’t take it anymore and wrote a letter to the Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy who referred her to ACLU and the rest as they say is history.

Over the years, I  have always been very aware of the couple especially when they both died and from the HBO Documentary “The Loving Story” because their story impacted me so personally.

Loving v. Virginia  is one of those landmark civil rights cases, everyone should know about but don’t. Now we just take for granted that couples of every race can marry without repercussions.

What is Loving Day?

Loving Day commemorates the 1967 US Supreme Court decision between the Loving vs Virginia, which struck down all United State Laws banning interracial marriage – mainly between non-whites and whites. Take the time learn more about the petition to make this an official Federal holiday.

Loving from Focus Features

I also want to give you the heads up to one of the major movies coming out of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. The buzz for Loving has been huge, like Oscar buzz huge.

Loving from Focus Features stars Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga as the couple, Richard and Mildred Loving who are the center of Loving v. Virginia. The movie is directed  by Jeff Nichols (Midnight Special, Mud, Take Shelter.) I look forward to seeing the movie, learn more at Loving website.

Loving will be  theaters this November.

Disclosure: NYC Single Mom was not compensated for this post.