Wednesday, June 06, 2007

40 year anniversary of the loving decision

okay, call me a ditz. But I think I owe these folks. -C

The Loving Case 40th Anniversary Won Us the RIGHT to Love Anyone WE choose
Next week marks the fourtieth anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, a Supreme Court case many of us born post-1967 may not be aware of.

In June of 1958, Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter were married inWashington, D.C. Six months after having been married, the couple was arrested, convicted of a felony, and sentenced to a year in jail. Their crime? Richard was white. Mildred was black.

The trial judge suspended the sentence for a period of 25 years on the condition that the Lovings leave the State and not return toVirginia together for 25 years. He stated in an opinion that:

"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red,and he placed them on separate continents. And but for theinterference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did notintend for the races to mix."

The Lovings moved to Washington, D.C. (where they lived for 8 years)and appealed their conviction on the grounds that Virginia law (TheRacial Integrity Law of 1924) violated their rights to equal protection of the law and due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.




Rest of article up here
http://bfinterracialmarriage.blogspot.com/

2 comments:

Sheri Fresonke Harper said...

Terrifying how it wasn't so long ago. But we've made progress. Good article.

chrisd said...

?????????????

I had never heard of this. That wasn't too long ago.

Wow!

Thank you for posting this, Carole!

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