Remembering Loving v. Virginia

June 12^th marked the anniversary of a landmark legal case known as Loving v. Virginia.

The plaintiffs, a black woman named Mildred Loving and her white husband Richard Perry Loving were arrested in 1958 when they returned to their Virginia home after being married in the District of Columbia. Because Virginia law prevented interracial couples from being married, they were arrested, pleaded guilty, and were sentenced to a year in prison. However, the trial judge suspended the sentence for 25 years, as long as the Lovings left the state of Virginia and didn’t come back for 25 years.

The Trial judge, Leon Bazile issued the following statement:

“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”

The Lovings moved to Washington D.C. where they began a series of lawsuits claiming that Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which caused their marriage to be considered a criminal act, was a direct violation of the 14^th amendment to the Constitution. Ultimately, the Supreme Court overturned their convictions and declared the Racial Integrity Act unconstitutional. The opinion of the court stated:

Marriage is one of the “basic civil rights of man,” fundamental to our very existence and survival…. To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discrimination. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.

It is interesting to note, however, that while this decision declared that laws which prevented interracial couples from getting married was unconstitutional, it still took around 30 years for some states (such as Alabama) to take those laws off the books.

When doing research on this topic – it surprised me (in a way) to read what people had been saying at the times about interracial marriages – like the quote from Leon Bazile above. They started to sound very similar to what some people are saying about gay marriage.

Ok. I understand it. Kind of. When you feel very strongly about a subject, you are going to find whatever you can to justify it – especially if it conflicts with your other beliefs. Some people do turn to philosophy or religion. For example – you think prejudice is wrong. However, you don’t like gay people. So, you have two options. Either change the way you think, or find a way to make it acceptable. Now, many people think the Bible says homosexual behavior is immoral. Therefore, it’s ok to be prejudiced against gay people. After all, if God says it’s ok, it’s not prejudice, right?

There used to be a lot more people who thought that interracial marriages were disgraceful, immoral, and an abomination. Interracial couples were often the target of violent attacks, pranks, name calling, etc… They justified their hated by saying God didn’t want people of different races getting together. They said it wasn’t natural. They said it was abomination against God’s will.

At some point in history, we all went through a paradigm shift. It started with interracial couples standing up for themselves. It started with a few brave individuals who would speak out against the injustice of it all. And today, when we look back at those brave souls, we consider them visionaries – we consider them heroes.

Because their paradigm shifted before other people’s? Maybe. Or, maybe it was because they said something about it.