Mildred Loving Dies at 68 Gail Heriot

Was there ever a more perfect name for a civil rights plaintiff?  She and her late husband get the credit for consigning miscegenation laws to the dustbin of American history.  Rest in peace, Mrs. Loving.

The New York Times has this to say:

By their own widely reported accounts, Mrs. Loving and her husband, Richard, were in bed in their modest house in Central Point in the early morning of July 11, 1958, five weeks after their wedding, when the county sheriff and two deputies, acting on an anonymous tip, burst into their bedroom and shined flashlights in their eyes. A threatening voice demanded, “Who is this woman you’re sleeping with?”

Mrs. Loving answered, “I’m his wife.”

Mr. Loving pointed to the couple’s marriage certificate hung on the bedroom wall. The sheriff responded, “That’s no good here.”

The certificate was from Washington, D.C., and under Virginia law, a marriage between people of different races performed outside Virginia was as invalid as one done in Virginia. At the time, it was one of 16 states that barred marriages between races.

After Mr. Loving spent a night in jail and his wife several more, the couple pleaded guilty to violating the Virginia law, the Racial Integrity Act. Under a plea bargain, their one-year prison sentences were suspended on the condition that they leave Virginia and not return together or at the same time for 25 years.

Judge Leon M. Bazile, in language Chief Justice Warren would recall, said that if God had meant for whites and blacks to mix, he would have not placed them on different continents. Judge Bazile reminded the defendants that “as long as you live you will be known as a felon.”

They paid court fees of $36.29 each, moved to Washington and had three children. They returned home occasionally, never together. But times were tough financially, and the Lovings missed family, friends and their easy country lifestyle in the rolling Virginia hills.

By 1963, Mrs. Loving could stand the ostracism no longer. Inspired by the civil rights movement and its march on Washington, she wrote Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and asked for help. He wrote her back, and referred her to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The A.C.L.U. took the case. Its lawyers, Bernard S. Cohen and Philip J. Hirschkop, faced an immediate problem: the Lovings had pleaded guilty and had no right to appeal. So they asked Judge Bazile to set aside his original verdict. When he refused, they appealed. The Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the lower court, and the case went to the United States Supreme Court.

Mr. Cohen recounted telling Mr. Loving about various legal theories applying to the case. Mr. Loving replied, “Mr. Cohen, tell the court I love my wife, and it is just unfair that I can’t live with her in Virginia.”

Times have changed for the better.  I am told that one in eight African American marriages today is "mixed."  (By the way, a very significant number of the most active  leaders in opposing racial preferences in college admissions, public contracting and employment are in racially mixed marriages.  Yet they are called racists.)

Comments

[krome]

My granddaughter is anglo/scandanavian/italian/hispanic/native american. If she can find a nice black/asian/pacific islander gent to marry - then my great grandchildren will be able to check all of the boxes on the form.

Would they be able to get more than full scholarships then?

[USD Law Student]

In 1963, the Office of the Attorney General stood for not only competence, but justice and integrity as well. Hopefully it will again someday.

[unhhyphenatedconservative]

USD Law Student,

Does that justice and integrity include tapping MLK? Put the patchouli down and move on.

[USD Law Student]

UHC,

Yes, RFK's record on civil rights was abysmal. Especially his:

* prosecuting corrupt southern electoral officials;
*demanding that every area of government begin recruiting realistic levels of black and other ethnic workers, going so far as to criticize Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson for his failure to desegregate his own office staff;
*Sending US Marshals and National guard to stop the attack on MLK at the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama;
*Sending U.S. Marshals and troops to Oxford, Mississippi, to enforce a Federal court order admitting the first African American student, James Meredith, to the University of Mississippi;
*Hiring the first African American Lawyer in the Office of Civil Rights;
*Collaborating with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to create the Civil Rights Act of 1964;
*Touring South Africa and championing the anti-Apartheid movement.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy#Attorney_General)

Yes, RFK gave approval for the limited wiretapping of MLK at the request of J.Edgar Hoover, who extended this approval greatly. This was a mistake by RFK. However, viewed in the totality of the circumstances of his contributions to the Civil Rights movement, my comments about justice and integrity hold up.

P.S. Patchouli? Really? Did you get that from an old episode of Family Ties or what?

[unhhyphenatedconservative]

USD,

My point was that your claim that the 1963 Justice Department was some sort of beacon of all that is goodness and light is just silly. Or are you honestly claiming the AG today would not be doing the same if we were in the same situation, i.e. threats against prominent blacks? Indeed, one conservative complaint about the Bush administration was its tepid opposition to affirmative action in the Michigan Law School case.

As to the patchouli, I'm a Berkeley alum and I know from experience what 60's nostalgia smells of :)