Loving v. Virginia
Loving v. Virginia
You can't choose who you love and you can't control how you feel towards someone based exclusively on race. A person's skin color shouldn't influence how they are treated or who they are required to marry. Before 1967, marrying outside of one's own race was unheard of in the United States. This issue may seem foreign to us because it is now one of the many freedoms we have, but these freedoms were not easy to obtain. The unjust anti-miscegenation laws were finally defeated by the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia and people were free to love as they wished. Loving v. Virginia had a huge impact on the US by protecting the freedom to marry regardless of race.
Anti-miscegenation laws have been around in the US since the late 17th century. One of the laws put into action to discourage the act of miscegenation was The Racial Integrity Act of 1924 which stated that every person is required to have a full racial description report when they were born. There were only two groups that a child could be placed in: white people and colored people. This law made it clear that it was illegal for these two races to marry.
In 1958, Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, got married in the District of Columbia in an attempt to avoid Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws, and then returned to their home in Caroline County, Virginia. Their marriage violated the state's anti-miscegenation statute, which was also effective in 16 other states.
One night, the newlyweds were awakened in their home by three intruders demanding to know who they were and why they were in bed together. Mildred answered that she was Richard’s wife and Mr. Loving pointed to the marriage certificate hanging on the wall.
The leader of the intruders, Sheriff R. Brooks, said that this was not good. He arrested the young couple and they were each sentenced to a year in jail.
You can't choose who you love and you can't control how you feel towards someone based exclusively on race. A person's skin color shouldn't influence how they are treated or who they are required to marry. Before 1967, marrying outside of one's own race was unheard of in the United States. This issue may seem foreign to us because it is now one of the many freedoms we have, but these freedoms were not easy to obtain. The unjust anti-miscegenation laws were finally defeated by the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia and people were free to love as they wished. Loving v. Virginia had a huge impact on the US by protecting the freedom to marry regardless of race.
Anti-miscegenation laws have been around in the US since the late 17th century. One of the laws put into action to discourage the act of miscegenation was The Racial Integrity Act of 1924 which stated that every person is required to have a full racial description report when they were born. There were only two groups that a child could be placed in: white people and colored people. This law made it clear that it was illegal for these two races to marry.
In 1958, Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, got married in the District of Columbia in an attempt to avoid Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws, and then returned to their home in Caroline County, Virginia. Their marriage violated the state's anti-miscegenation statute, which was also effective in 16 other states.
One night, the newlyweds were awakened in their home by three intruders demanding to know who they were and why they were in bed together. Mildred answered that she was Richard’s wife and Mr. Loving pointed to the marriage certificate hanging on the wall.
The leader of the intruders, Sheriff R. Brooks, said that this was not good. He arrested the young couple and they were each sentenced to a year in jail.