Wednesday Poll: "Loving" and Discrimination in Our "Enlightened" Times
It's been all over the news of course, but Mildred Loving died last week. In case you're unfamiliar with the Supreme Court case that bears her name:
"Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving grew up as friends and neighbors in Caroline County, Va. In June 1958, Richard got 18-year-old Mildred pregnant, and the young lovers decided to get married. Ordinarily, that would have been the respectable thing to do. But Mildred was black, Richard was white, and the Commonwealth of Virginia and 15 other states still had laws on the books prohibiting miscegenation. Mildred and Richard had to travel to Washington, D.C., to get married in a civil ceremony. Then they returned home to Central Point, Va.
"A few weeks later, the local sheriff literally burst into the newlyweds' bedroom and arrested them for violating Virginia's Racial Integrity Act. ('If any white person intermarry with a colored person, or any colored person intermarry with a white person, he shall be guilty of a felony.') The Lovings were convicted by a judge who wrote, 'Almighty God … did not intend for the races to mix' but agreed to suspend their one-year jail sentence provided they left Virginia and didn't return for 25 years.
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