In Loving memory ...

  RICHMOND, VA - *Mildred Loving, a black woman whose challenge to Virginia's ban on interracial marriage led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling striking down such laws nationwide, has died, her daughter said Monday.

  Peggy Fortune said Loving, 68, died Friday at her home in rural Milford. She did not disclose the cause of death. "I want people to remember her as being strong and brave yet humble - and believed in love," Fortune told The Associated Press.

  Loving and her white husband, Richard, changed history in 1967 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld their right to marry. The ruling struck down laws banning racially mixed marriages in at least 17 states. "There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the equal protection clause," the court ruled in a unanimous decision.

  Her husband died in 1975. Shy and soft-spoken, Loving shunned publicity and in a rare interview with The Associated Press last June, insisted she never wanted to be a hero - just a bride. "It wasn't my doing," Loving said. "It was God's work."

  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. "I think my husband knew," Mildred said. "I think he thought (if) we were married, they couldn't bother us."

  But they were arrested a few weeks after they returned to Central Point, their hometown in rural Caroline County north of Richmond. They pleaded guilty to charges of "cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth," according to their indictments.

  They avoided jail time by agreeing to leave Virginia - the only home they'd known - for 25 years. They moved to Washington for several years, then launched a legal challenge by writing to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who referred the case to the American Civil Liberties Union. Link

   One afternoon after school fifty years ago, my head was propped up on my elbows while I lay on the carpet in front of the TV. 'The News' was as close to 'family hour' I experienced as a child. That particular evening, there was a long segment about the Lovings.

   I grew up in a very white place and time. My young mind was only able to conceive 'black' people as very seperate and different. Race to me was synonymous with species. Not that I harbored any racial animus, just that I had no other experience. As the news reporter droned on about the Lovings and how it was illegal to marry interracially throughout the South AND in many other States, I had an epiphany.

   For me, every bit as momentous as the day JFK got shot or we walked on the Moon. It was that seminal in my psyche. At that moment I realized that black people ARE people. Not different, not seperate - just people who fall in love like everybody else. I was repulsed by the notion a state, or any other entity for that matter, would dare to legislate such a thing.

   That one short moment changed my life. I now understood the ramifications of prejudice, bigotry and racism AND now saw the 'government' not as some paternal ally - but something to keep an eye on - a wary and very suspicious eye.

Mildred Loving changed my world.Spread the word!

Comments

[Kevin]

Racist joke time! this was told by a black man on Comedy Central, so you can't blame me!

"What we need now is dialogue. For instance, I might say, 'Hey, white man, why are you so nervous and uptight?' And he might say, 'Hey, black man, how did you get into my apartment?'"

[Beaver]

I don't get it.

[Wally]

Me neither.

[June]

Go ask your Father.

[Ward]

Oh, look! The manufacturer of our favorite brand of conveniently pre-sliced white sandwich bread is going to add VITAMINS!

Isn't America GREAT!

[Oldcatman]

As long as there is ONE RACIST left inter racial marriages will be difficult for the couple......

[Oldcatman]

.......then again, how many blacks in America have 100% African
heritage?

What say, Obama?

[David]

OCM,
about 20-25%

[Steel]

And those are first and second generation immigrants - correct?