50th Anniversary of
SC ruling in Loving v Virginia: Interracial Marriage is Legal.
Fifty years ago, on June 12,
1967, the Supreme Court ruled to strike down miscegenation laws prohibiting
interracial marriage. This ruling meant it was now legal to marry interracially
in all 50 of the United States. “There can be no
doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial
classifications violates the central meaning of the equal protection clause (Equal
Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. Pp. 4-1),” stated the Supreme Court in the Loving vs. Virginia ruling.
Prior to this ruling, 16
states still considered it a punishable offense to marry interracially. It is difficult to believe that just 50
years ago, in 16 different states, it was still illegal to marry the person you
loved if their skin color and ethnicity was different than yours. In
addition to Virginia (the state named in this monumental lawsuit), the
remaining fifteen states included Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida,
Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
All of this happened because a
young couple who had been childhood friends, grew up in Virginia and fell in
love. In 1958, Mildred and Richard traveled to Washington D.C. to marry, then
returned home to Virginia, despite the state law that forbid this in their home
state. Upon arriving back in Virginia, they were promptly arrested for their
interracial marriage. To avoid jailtime, they agreed to leave Virginia, so they
moved back to D.C. where they had wed, and immediately began working towards
fighting miscegenation laws. Nine years after, in 1967, the Supreme Court ruled
in their favor, overruling all state laws prohibiting interracial marriage
throughout all fifty states.
Two years ago this month, a
similar battle was won on a more contemporary controversy. On June 26, 2015,
the Supreme Court again ruled in favor of love, by determining in the Obergefell v Hodges ruling that, "No
union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of
love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union,
two people become something greater than they once were." This ruling by
Justice Anthony Kennedy recognized on a national level the right to marry
regardless of gender.
Although the Supreme Court
ruled that same sex marriages are legal, there are still states within the
United States that do not recognize this ruling, and have state laws
prohibiting same sex marriages. These states include: Arkansas, Georgia,
Louisiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota,
Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas.
June 12 is National Loving
Day, but we would do well to remember that every day should be a loving day.
And, regardless of skin color, ethnicity, or gender, love knows no boundaries.
As song writer Eden Ahbez wrote in the 1948 classic Nature Boy and David Bowie
sang in the Disney movie Mulan, “The greatest thing you will ever learn is to
love and be loved in return.”
#NationalLovingDay #LoveWins
(written for YWCA MV)
