In 1958, Richard Loving, a white man and Mildred, his black wife were arrested in Virginia and convicted of violating the state’s laws against interracial marriage. They had been married in the District of Columbia and subsequently moved to Virgina to live. They were sentenced to one year in prison but the sentence was suspended for 25 years on condition they leave the state and not return for at least 25 years.
They went back to the District of Columbia where, in 1963, they filed a motion in the state trial court appealing their convictions on the ground that the statutes which they had violated were repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment.
Their case was denied by the state trial judge. Their case was then appealed to the US Supreme Court where on June 12, 1967 their convictions were reversed.
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And so June 12 is Loving Day. The lovings are both deceased now. Mildred passed on this week but there is a growing movement to publicize this little known but appropriately named holiday and the story behind it.
