Mildred Jeter was just 18-years old when she married Richard Loving who was 6 years her senior. They married in 1958 and it wasn’t until 9 years later that their right to marry was acknowledged by the Supreme Court.
Day 43 Fun Fact Countdown to 50th Anniversary Celebration of Loving v. Virginia at Mixed Remixed Festival
Loving v. Virginia is an Important Story for Kids to Know
Today, there are two wonderful children’s books that help explain the story of the Lovings and the Supreme Court case:
The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage by Selina Alko and Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case by Patricia Hruby Powell.
Day 44 Fun Fact Countdown to 50th Anniversary Celebration of Loving v. Virginia at Mixed Remixed Festival
The Loving v. Virginia decision made it legal for people of different races to marry nationwide, but anti-miscegenation laws stayed on several states’ books for many years later. Alabama was the last to strike anti-miscegenation laws from its statutes in 2000. Source New York Times November 12, 2000.
Join us June 10, 2017 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in downtown Los Angeles for the 4th Annual Mixed Remixed Festival, the biggest celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia decision with a film, book and performance festival that showcases stories of the mixed-race and multiracial experience. FREE!
Day 45 Fun Fact Countdown to 50th Anniversary Celebration of Loving v. Virginia at Mixed Remixed Festival
Day 46 Fun Fact Countdown to 50th Anniversary Celebration of Loving v. Virginia at Mixed Remixed Festival
50 Years after Loving v. Virginia People Still Express Aversion to Mixed-Race Marriages
In a study published by the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, University of Nebraska researchers discovered that photos of mixed-race couples were viewed with derision. The participants were young people whose brain activity was monitored while looking at interracial couples. According to the Washington Post: “Researchers found that the insula, a part of the brain that registers disgust, was highly active when participants viewed photos of the interracial couples, but not was not highly engaged when viewers saw the images of same-race couples, whether they were white or black.”
What do you make of that “fun” fact? Are young people still tied to racist ideas of the past even though they express a more enlightened attitude?
Join us for the Mixed Remixed Festival at the Los Angeles Theatre Center 6/10. FREE! Registration opens 5/1.
Day 48 Fun Fact Countdown to 50th Anniversary Celebration of Loving v. Virginia at Mixed Remixed Festival
Mildred Loving Announced Her Support For Gay Marriage
Mildred Loving died in 2008. She had stopped giving public interviews in her last years. But in 2007–the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision–she issued a statement concerning marriage equality.
“My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.
Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the “wrong kind of person” for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.
I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.”
It was just two years ago that the Supreme Court made marriage equality the law of the land in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015).
The countdown continues! See you at the Mixed Remixed Festival in Los Angeles 6/10! FREE!
Day 49 Fun Fact Countdown to 50th Anniversary Celebration of Loving v. Virginia at Mixed Remixed Festival
Mildred Loving Was Mixed Race
I was surprised to learn last year that that Mildred Loving did not consider herself African-American. While researching her excellent book That the Blood Stay Pure: African Americans, Native Americans and the Predicament of Race and Identity in Virginia, Arica Coleman had a chance to interview Mildred Loving. Loving told Coleman emphatically: “I am not black . . I have no black ancestry. I am Indian-Rappahannock. I told the people when they came to arrest me.”
Arica Coleman has done some great writing about this subject and all of the implications. You can read her Time Magazine article The White and Black Worlds of Loving v. Virginia and her scholarly piece Mildred Loving The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Woman.
What do you make of that fun fact? Let us know by leaving a comment or email us at info(at)mixedremixed.org.
The countdown continues!
Join us for the 4th Annual Mixed Remixed Festival June 10, 2017 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in downtown LA. FREE!
Day 50 Fun Fact Countdown: the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Loving v. Virginia at the Mixed Remixed Festival
Today we kick off our 50-day Fun Fact Countdown until the Mixed Remixed Festival where we are hosting the nation’s largest celebration of the 50th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia. We thought it would be fun to highlight a different aspect of the case and how it has changed America each day for 50 days. Do you have a fun fact about the case or the way it affected your life? We want to hear about it! Email us at info@mixedremixed.org with your story and we will feature it in one of our posts.
Today’s fun fact is:
The law Richard and Mildred Loving were accused of violating was the Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited interracial marriage and defined a white person as someone with “no discernible nonwhite ancestry.”
Okay, this is not a “fun” fact. But can you believe it?