Day 43 Fun Fact Countdown to 50th Anniversary Celebration of Loving v. Virginia at Mixed Remixed Festival

April 28, 2017 by admin

Loving v. Virginia is an Important Story for Kids to Know

Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s as part of a multiracial family, I seemed like our family was an aberration. I would have loved to know more about the history of mixed-race and multiracial families.

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.

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 44 Fun Fact Countdown to 50th Anniversary Celebration of Loving v. Virginia at Mixed Remixed Festival

April 27, 2017 by admin

Photo: Grey Villet, [Richard Loving kissing wife Mildred as he arrives home from work, King and Queen County, Virginia], April 1965. © Estate of Grey Villet.

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.

Day 46 Fun Fact Countdown to 50th Anniversary Celebration of Loving v. Virginia at Mixed Remixed Festival

April 25, 2017 by admin

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 47 Fun Fact Countdown to 50th Anniversary Celebration of Loving v. Virginia at Mixed Remixed Festival

April 24, 2017 by admin

Loving v. Virginia Is Important to Mixed Race Families Today

The Loving v. Virginia decision continues to play an important role in the lives of interracial couples and mixed-race people. Here are quotes from moving essays about what the Supreme Court decision has meant in the personal lives of these writers:

“In Appreciation of The Lovings: 45 Years of Legal Interaccial Marriage” by Rebecca Carroll, Ebony Magazine June 12, 2012. Carroll movingly writes: “I am grateful my son does not remember a time when his parents were not legally allowed to marry, although he knows that such a time existed — in as much as he can comprehend at nearly seven years old.”
Thanks, Mildred and Richard Loving for My Interracial Marriage by Liz Lin. Lin writes: “I raise my glass to Mildred and Richard Loving, who made my marriage possible and are thus responsible for an immeasurable amount of my happiness and stability. I am deeply indebted to them.”
Interracial Couples Are Still Seen as Rare by Kevin Noble Maillard, New York Times June 27, 2013. Maillard writes: “Mixed relationships are sexualized, where everything mundane and normal is forgotten in the wake of the erotic.

Do you have a story about how Loving v. Virginia affected your family? #multiracial #mixedrace

Click To Tweet

Do you have your own story of how the Loving v. Virginia decision has affected you or your family? Let us know info(at)mixedremixed.org.

Join us for the 4th annual 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

April 23, 2017 by admin

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.

I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry.

Click To Tweet

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

April 22, 2017 by admin

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.”