This Day in History: US Supreme Court ends laws against interracial marriages in 1967 Loving v Virginia case
In 1958, long-time friends-turned-lovers Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving exchanged their vows in Washington DC and returned to their hometown of Virginia. Just five weeks after thy were wed, the Lovings were woken from their slumber and arrested by the local sheriff. Mildred was a woman of African-American and Native American descent, while Richard was a white man, and in Virginia, marrying out of your race was deemed a felony. They had married each other at a time when the state staunchly practiced anti-miscegenation or anti-interracial marriage laws, which had existed since colonial times. Interracial marriage was illegal under the 1924’s Act to Preserve Racial Integrity and those who violated the law would be subject to one to five years in a state penitentiary.
The Lovings pleaded guilty to the "criminal offense" a year later, and the judge at their trial sentenced them to a year in prison. Later their sentence was suspended on the condition that they leave Virginia and not return for the next 25 years. Following their court trial, the couple relocated to Washington DC and lived in exile for several years. They even raised their three children there, but 25 years was a long time to be away from home. They eagerly looked forward to the day they could come back to Virginia. So, in 1963, a desperate Mildred Loving penned down a letter addressed to the then US Attorney General Robert F Kennedy, requesting his assistance. Kennedy redirected the couple to the American civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the organization agreed to represent them in court.
Later that year, under the consultation of two young ACLU lawyers, Bernard Cohen and Philip Hirschkop, The Lovings filed a motion asking the trial judge that sentence them to revoke their conviction and do away with their exile. This was the beginning of their four-year-long legal battle with the state of Virginia. The judge refused to do so, and an appeal was sent to the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, which upheld the original convictions ruling that the state was working towards preserving the "racial integrity" of its constituents. Since the punishment was equally applied to both races, the statute did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. After two failed appeals to the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, the case made its way to the United States Supreme Court in 1967 and became what is known as the 'Loving v Virginia' case.
Virginia's Assistant Attorney General Robert D Mcllwaine III likened the constitutionality of the state's anti-miscegenation law to regulations against incest and polygamy, while the court trials ensued. On the other hand, the Lovings' lawyers argued that the Virginia statute was illegal under the 14th Amendment of the Constitutions, which clearly guarantees all citizens due process and equal protection under the law. Hirschkop even went as far as to support his argument with a statement about the interracial marriage law evoking racism and white supremacy. “These are not health and welfare laws,” he reportedly argued. “These are slavery laws, pure and simple.”
On this very day, 53 years ago, the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Virginia anti-miscegenation laws violated the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and struck down all laws banning interracial marriages across 16 states in the US. “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,” wrote Chief Justice Earl Warren. The Lovings had won the case against the state of Virginia and single-handed brought about a watershed moment in helping abolish the Jim Crow laws that reigned over the African-Americans and became pivotal to the Civil Rights Movement.