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History > USA > Civil rights > Miscegenation laws

 

Loving v. Virginia   1967

 

 

 

 

Richard Loving kisses his wife Mildred

as he arrives home from work,

 

King and Queen County, Virginia, April 1965.

 

Photograph: © Estate of Grey Villet

http://life.time.com/history/richard-and-mildred-loving-grey-villet-photos-1966

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard kisses his wife

as he arrives home from work.

 

The Lovings

were sentenced to one year in prison,

suspended if they left Virginia

and did not return together

for at least 25 years.

 

The couple moved to Washington DC

 

Photograph: © Grey Villet, 1965

 

The Lovings,

a marriage that changed history – in pictures

In July 1958, Mildred and Richard Loving

were arrested for interracial marriage,

then a crime in their home state of Virginia.

Life photographer Grey Villet

spent a few weeks with them,

two years before their case brought down the law.

Here are some of his images of the heroic lovers

from the book The Lovings: An Intimate Portrait

G

Wednesday 29 March 2017    11.00 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2017/mar/29/
the-lovings-in-pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mildred and Richard Loving,

pictured on their front porch

in King and Queen County, Virginia,

in 1965.

 

In June 1958,

the couple went to Washington DC to marry,

to work around Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924,

which made marriage between whites and non-whites

a crime.

 

After an anonymous tip,

police officers raided their home a month later,

telling the Lovings their marriage certificate was invalid.

 

In 1959,

the Lovings pled guilty

to ‘cohabiting as man and wife,

against the peace and dignity

of the Commonwealth’

 

Photograph: © Grey Villet, 1965

 

The Lovings,

a marriage that changed history – in pictures

In July 1958,

Mildred and Richard Loving

were arrested for interracial marriage,

then a crime in their home state of Virginia.

Life photographer Grey Villet

spent a few weeks with them,

two years before their case brought down the law.

Here are some of his images of the heroic lovers

from the book The Lovings: An Intimate Portrait

G

Wednesday 29 March 2017    11.00 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2017/mar/29/
the-lovings-in-pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The case went

from the Virginia Caroline county circuit court,

all the way to the US supreme court in Washington.

 

The Lovings

did not attend the hearings in Washington,

but Cohen conveyed a message from Richard:

‘Mr Cohen, tell the court I love my wife,

and it is just unfair

that I can’t live with her in Virginia.’

 

The Supreme Court overturned the Lovings’ convictions

in a unanimous decision in June 1967,

ruling that the ban on interracial marriage was unconstitutional

and in violation of the 14th Amendment

 

Photograph: © Grey Villet, 1965

 

The Lovings,

a marriage that changed history – in pictures

In July 1958,

Mildred and Richard Loving

were arrested for interracial marriage,

then a crime in their home state of Virginia.

Life photographer Grey Villet

spent a few weeks with them,

two years before their case brought down the law.

Here are some of his images of the heroic lovers

from the book The Lovings: An Intimate Portrait

G

Wednesday 29 March 2017    11.00 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2017/mar/29/
the-lovings-in-pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mildred and Richard Loving in 1965.

 

They married in 1958

but were told they could not live together in Virginia

because of the state’s Racial Integrity Act.

 

Photograph: Associated Press

 

Bernard Cohen,

Lawyer in Landmark Mixed-Marriage Case,

Dies at 86

With Philip J. Hirschkop,

he brought Loving v. Virginia to the Supreme Court,

which struck down laws against interracial marriages.

NYT

Oct. 15, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/
us/bernard-cohen-dead.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For five years,

the Lovings lived in internal exile

while they raised their three children,

Peggy, Sidney and Donald,

seen here playing in the fields

near their Virginia home

 

The Lovings,

a marriage that changed history – in pictures

In July 1958,

Mildred and Richard Loving

were arrested for interracial marriage,

then a crime in their home state of Virginia.

Life photographer Grey Villet

spent a few weeks with them,

two years before their case brought down the law.

Here are some of his images of the heroic lovers

from the book The Lovings: An Intimate Portrait

G

Wednesday 29 March 2017    11.00 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2017/mar/29/
the-lovings-in-pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mildred Delores Loving    1940-2008

 

black woman whose anger

over being banished from Virginia

for marrying a white man

led to a landmark

Supreme Court ruling

overturning

state miscegenation laws

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/us/06loving.html

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/12/
1005848169/loving-day-interracial-marriage-legal-origin

 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2017/mar/29/
the-lovings-in-pictures

 

http://www.npr.org/2016/11/04/
500648860/-loving-shows-a-quiet-couple-in-the-eye-of-historys-storm

 

 

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/us/
06loving.html

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/07/
usa.humanrights

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laws banning "race-mixing"

were enforced in Nazi Germany

(the Nuremberg Laws)

from 1935 until 1945,

in certain U.S. states

from the Colonial era

until 1967

and in South Africa

during the early part

of the Apartheid era.

 

All these laws primarily banned

marriage between spouses

of different racially

or ethnically  defined groups,

which was termed "amalgamation"

or "miscegenation" in the U.S.

 

The laws in Nazi Germany

and many of the U.S. states,

as well as South Africa,

also banned sexual relations

between such individuals.

 

In the United States,

the various state laws

prohibited the marriage

of whites and blacks,

and in many states

also the intermarriage of whites

with Native Americans or Asians.

 

In the U.S.,

such laws were known

as anti-miscegenation laws.

 

From 1913 until 1948,

30 out of the then 48 states

enforced such laws.

 

Although

an "Anti-Miscegenation Amendment"

to the United States Constitution

was proposed in 1871,

in 1912–1913, and in 1928,

no nation-wide law against

racially mixed marriages

was ever enacted.

 

In 1967,

the United States Supreme Court

unanimously ruled

in Loving v. Virginia

that anti-miscegenation laws

are unconstitutional.

 

With this ruling,

these laws were no longer in effect

in the remaining 16 states

that still had them.

 

The laws in U.S. states

were established

to maintain "racial purity"

and white supremacy.

 

Such laws were passed

in South Africa

because of fears

that the white minority

would be "bred-out"

by the black majority.

 

The Nazi ban

on interracial marriage

and interracial sex

was enacted in September 1935

as part of the Nuremberg Laws,

the Gesetz zum Schutze

des deutschen Blutes

und der deutschen Ehre

(The Law for the Protection

of German Blood

and German Honour).

 

The Nuremberg Laws

classified Jews as a race,

and forbade marriage

and extramarital sexual relations

between persons of Jewish origin

and persons of "German

or related blood".

 

Such intercourse

was condemned

as Rassenschande

(lit. "race-disgrace")

and could be punished

by imprisonment

(usually followed

by deportation

to a concentration camp)

and even by death.

 

The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act

in South Africa, enacted in 1949,

banned intermarriage between

different racial groups,

including between whites

and non-whites.

 

The Immorality Act,

enacted in 1950,

also made it a criminal offense

for a white person

to have any sexual relations

with a person of a different race.

 

Both laws were repealed

in 1985.

https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Miscegenation.html

 

 

https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/
Miscegenation.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loving Decision:

40 Years of Legal Interracial Unions

NPR    June 11, 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/
story.php?storyId=10889047
- June 11, 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1967

 

Movies > Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Guess_Who's_Coming_to_Dinner

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1967/12/12/
archives/screen-guess-whos-coming-to-dinner-
arrivestracyhepburn-picture.html 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

U.S. Supreme Court ruling

 

Loving v. Virginia

 

388 U.S. 1

Loving v. Virginia (No. 395)

 

Argued: April 10, 1967

 

Decided: June 12, 1967

 

206 Va. 924, 147 S.E.2d 78, reversed.

 

Syllabus

 

Virginia's statutory scheme

to prevent marriages

between persons solely

on the basis

of racial classifications

held to violate the Equal Protection

and Due Process Clauses

of the Fourteenth Amendment.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/388/1

 

 

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/388/1 

 

 

 

 

Amendment XIV        Section 1

 

Passed by Congress June 13, 1866.

 

Ratified July 9, 1868.

 

 

All persons born or naturalized

in the United States,

and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,

are citizens of the United States

and of the state wherein they reside.

 

No state shall make

or enforce any law

which shall abridge

the privileges or immunities

of citizens of the United States;

 

nor shall any state

deprive any person

of life, liberty, or property,

without due process of law;

 

nor deny to any person

within its jurisdiction

the equal protection of the laws.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/12/
1005848169/loving-day-interracial-marriage-legal-origin

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/
us/bernard-cohen-dead.html

 

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/05/18/
528939766/five-fold-increase-in-interracial-marriages-50-years-
after-they-became-legal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On March 18, 1966,

LIFE magazine published a feature

under the quietly chilling headline,

“The Crime of Being Married.”

 

The article, illustrated

with photographs

by LIFE’s Grey Villet,

told the story

of Richard and Mildred Loving,

a married interracial couple

battling Virginia’s

anti-miscegenation laws.

 

Villet’s warm, intimate pictures

revealed a close-knit family,

including

children and grandparents,

living their lives in opposition

to a patently unjust law

— but also captured

eloquent moments,

gestures and expressions

that affirmed just how heavily

their defiance weighed

on the very private couple.

http://life.time.com/history/richard-and-mildred-loving-grey-villet-photos-1966/?iid=lf|mostpop#1

 

 

 

 

The Loving Story:

Photographs by Grey Villet 

JANUARY 20–MAY 6, 2012

 

 

Forty-five years ago,

sixteen states still prohibited

interracial marriage.

 

Then, in 1967,

the U.S. Supreme Court

considered the case

of Richard Perry Loving,

a white man,

and his wife, Mildred Loving,

a woman of African American

and Native American descent,

who had been arrested

for miscegenation

nine years earlier in Virginia.

 

The Lovings were not active

in the Civil Rights movement

but their tenacious legal battle

to justify their marriage

changed history

when the Supreme Court

unanimously declared

Virginia's

anti-miscegenation law

—and all race-based

marriage bans—

unconstitutional.

 

LIFE magazine photographer

Grey Villet's intimate images

were uncovered

by director Nancy Buirski

during the making

of The Loving Story,

a documentary debuting

on February 14, 2012 on HBO.

 

The exhibition,

organized by Assistant Curator

of Collections Erin Barnett,

includes some 20 vintage prints

loaned by the estate of Grey Villet

and by the Loving family.

http://www.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/loving-story-photographs-grey-villet

 

 

 

 

The Supreme Court ruling,

in 1967,

struck down the last group

of segregation laws

to remain on the books

— those requiring

separation of the races

in marriage.

 

The ruling was unanimous,

its opinion written

by Chief Justice Earl Warren,

who in 1954 wrote

the court’s opinion

in Brown

v.

Board of Education,

declaring

segregated public schools

unconstitutional.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/us/06loving.html

 

 

https://www.icp.org/exhibitions/the-loving-story-photographs-by-grey-villet

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/388/1

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/12/
1005848169/loving-day-interracial-marriage-legal-origin

 

 

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/12/
1005848169/loving-day-interracial-marriage-legal-origin

 

 

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/16/
924747746/bernard-cohen-lawyer-who-argued-loving-v-virginia-case-dies-at-86

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/
us/bernard-cohen-dead.html

 

 

 

 

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/06/12/
532580867/50-years-after-loving-hollywood-still-struggles-with-interracial-romance

 

http://www.npr.org/2017/06/12/
532061667/interracial-marriages-face-pushback-50-years-after-loving

 

http://www.npr.org/2017/06/12/
532123349/illicit-cohabitation-listen-to-6-stunning-moments-from-loving-v-virginia

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/12/
opinion/loving-virginia-50-year-anniversary.html

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/11/us/
mixed-race-marriage-loving-decision-anniversary.html

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/
opinion/sunday/how-interracial-love-is-saving-america.html

 

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/05/18/
528939766/five-fold-increase-in-interracial-marriages-50-years-after-they-became-legal

 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2017/mar/29/
the-lovings-in-pictures

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/feb/05/
loving-review-marriage-changed-history-ruth-negga-joel-edgerton-jeff-nichols

 

 

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/
fashion/weddings/for-interracial-couples-
growing-acceptance-with-some-exceptions.html

 

 

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/
arts/design/the-loving-story-at-international-center-of-photography.html

 

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/
the-heart-of-the-matter-love/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bernard Sol Cohen    1934-2020

 

 

 

 

Bernard S. Cohen, left, and Philip J. Hirschkop,

co-counsels in Loving v. Virginia.

 

The Supreme Court’s

landmark unanimous ruling in that case in 1967

struck down bans on interracial marriage.

 

Photograph: Francis Miller (1905-1973)

The LIFE Picture Collection,

via Getty Images

 

Bernard Cohen,

Lawyer in Landmark Mixed-Marriage Case,

Dies at 86

With Philip J. Hirschkop,

he brought Loving v. Virginia to the Supreme Court,

which struck down laws against interracial marriages.

NYT

Oct. 15, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/
us/bernard-cohen-dead.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Philip J. Hirschkop,

(Bernard Sol Cohen) brought

Loving v. Virginia

to the Supreme Court,

which struck down laws

against interracial marriages.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/
us/bernard-cohen-dead.html

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/16/
924747746/bernard-cohen-lawyer-who-argued-loving-v-virginia-case-
dies-at-86

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/
us/bernard-cohen-dead.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1960s

 

miscegenation laws

 

ban in many US states

against interracial marriage

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/
us/06loving.html 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/may/07/
usa.humanrights

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sammy Davis Jr.   1925-1990

 

 

 

 

RatPac Press & Running Press

(The Perseus Books Group)

 

Rat Pack's Sammy Davis Jr. Lives On Through Daughter's Stories

NPR

May 08, 2014

http://www.npr.org/2014/05/08/
310700493/rat-packs-sammy-davis-jr-lives-on-through-daughters-storie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sammy Davis Jr.   1925-1990

 

born Samuel George Davis, Jr.

 

In his own words,

Sammy Davis, Jr.

was "the only black,

Puerto Rican, one-eyed,

Jewish entertainer

in the world."

 

His daughter, Tracey Davis,

shares memories and details

of his life in her new book,

Sammy Davis Jr.:

A Personal Journey

with My Father.

 

It's based on conversations

Davis had with her father

as he battled throat cancer

near the end of his life.

 

He described his start

in vaudeville at 3 years old

where he was billed

as an adult midget.

 

"He didn't have

the traditional family life,"

Davis tells NPR's

Celeste Headlee.

 

"He was always working,

working, working, and trying

to become famous."

 

She says

that even after making it,

"he was scared that it could be

taken away at any minute."

 

Sammy Davis Jr. was frank

about the racial prejudice

that he suffered both

during his army service

and his time in show business.

 

It also shadowed

his family life.

 

He married Swede

May Britt Wilkens

in 1960 — a time when

interracial marriage

was forbidden by law

in 31 states.

 

They both converted

to Judaism.

 

As his daughter grew up,

she remembers

"there [were] times

that a swastika

was painted somewhere

or the N-word

was written on a car."

http://www.npr.org/2014/05/08/
310700493/rat-packs-sammy-davis-jr-lives-on-through-daughters-stories

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/13/
arts/ruby-dee-actress-dies-at-91.html

 

http://www.npr.org/2014/05/08/
310700493/rat-packs-sammy-davis-jr-lives-on-through-daughters-stories

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1924,

the Virginia legislature

passed the Racial Integrity Act,

which outlawed interracial marriage,

in part by reclassifying

American Indians as “colored.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/
opinion/confederate-monuments-indians-original-southerners.html

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/
opinion/confederate-monuments-indians-original-southerners.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related > Anglonautes > History

 

20th century > USA > Civil rights

 

 

17th, 18th, 19th, 20th century

English America, America, USA

Racism, Slavery,

Abolition, Civil war,

Abraham Lincoln,

Reconstruction

 

 

17th, 18th, 19th century

English America, America, USA

 

 

 

 

 

Related > Anglonautes > Vocapedia

 

slavery, eugenics,

race relations,

racial divide, racism,

segregation, civil rights,

apartheid

 

 

Fourteenth Amendment   1868

 

 

 

 

 

Anglonautes > Arts > Photographers >

20th century > USA > Civil rights

 

Jeffrey Henson Scales

 

 

Doy Gorton

 

 

Danny Lyon

 

 

Doris Derby    1939-2022

 

 

Steve Schapiro    1934-2022

 

 

Fred Baldwin    1929-2021

 

 

Matt Herron    1931-2020

 

 

Don Hogan Charles    1938-2017

 

 

Robert Adelman    1930-2016

 

 

Ernest C. Withers    1922-2007

 

 

Leonard Freed    1929-2006

 

 

Gordon Parks    1912-2006

 

 

James "Spider" Martin    1939-2003

 

 

Grey Villet    1927-2000

 

 

Ed Clark    1911-2000

 

 

Ralph Waldo Ellison    1913-1994

 

 

Robert W. Kelley    1920-1991

 

 

Weegee    1899-1968

 

 

 

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