Mildred Loving dies at 68

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Obit

Who remembered before clicking the link why she was a notable person? She's probably had the most direct effect on my life, out of the regulars here, but I'm sure many of you heard about her at one point or another.

[Prepoia[$]]

Wow! The things of importance that I learn on this board are amazing. Thank you for sharing this with us.

[mtomm[$]]

I only knew because I read it in the paper last night. Quite remarkable isn't it, that such people even needed to exist--and still do really.

[amykhar]

I listened about her today on one of my NPR podcasts. There is even a Loving Day celebration in New York. I thought that was totally cool. They had the perfect last name for the issue they stood for, didn't they?

[theworm[$]]

I didn't know her story. Thanks for sharing it.

[lynnzop[$]]

Same here. So hard to believe that she and her husband had to go through that ordeal in the not-so-distant past.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

And the last state didn't remove its anti-miscegenation laws from the books until the year 2000.

[MrsNormanMaine[$]]

Someday I will be allowed to get married.

MNM

[rmthunter]

And a big part of that will be due to Mildred and Richard Loving.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Yup, the Loving case has been cited as part of the "one state allows/everyone recognizes" issue of gay marriage. Mildred hadn't given interviews in years before she died, but last year she issued a statement that said, in part, this:

...I am proud that Richard's and my name are on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight, seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about."

full statement (.pdf file) here

[theworm[$]]

MrsNormanMaine said

Someday I will be allowed to get married.

MNM

I hope so.

[rmthunter]

mjfrombuffalo said

Yup, the Loving case has been cited as part of the "one state allows/everyone recognizes" issue of gay marriage.

And that would be a mistaken cite. The case wasn't decided on the full faith and credit clause, which was not at issue there and as far as marriage is concerned is an area in which the fed has given wide latitude (probably because it never occurs to anyone to question a heterosexual marriage). It was decided on equal protection and due process (here's the decision).

This case presents a constitutional question never addressed by this Court: whether a statutory scheme adopted by the State of Virginia to prevent marriages between persons solely on the basis of racial classifications violates the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. 1 For reasons which seem to us to reflect the central meaning of those constitutional commands, we conclude that these statutes cannot stand consistently with the Fourteenth Amendment.

What's more important, the Court recognized marriage as a fundamental right and that the state cannot restrict anyone's freedom to marry without a compelling, rational reason.

Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival. Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U.S. 535, 541 (1942). See also Maynard v. Hill, 125 U.S. 190 (1888). 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 discriminations. 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.

And, all that aside, you have to admire someone with that kind of determination and that degree of grace.


.

[magenta321]

I had no idea who she was, or that it was so recent that these laws changed. How sad and eye-opening.

[conradd]

Thanks, MJ - her story needs to be shared. MNM, it will be a wonderful day when any two people who love each other can marry.

[conradd]

Nice opinion piece in yesterday's NYT.

The Supreme Court ruling underscored the stupidity and unfairness of segregation. And the case drew back the curtain on the secret history of race in the South. But for Mildred and Richard this struggle was not about changing the world. It was about fighting for the right to be married to one another and then returning to the community that was their home.

[Helen_B[$]]

I had no idea these laws were on the books anywhere, anymore. Sad.