Academic

Mildred Loving followed her heart and made history

Mildred Loving and her husband, Richard, refused to accept Virginia's ban on interracial marriage. They took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1967 struck down similar laws across the country.

Mildred Loving, a black woman whose challenge to Virginia's ban on interracial marriage led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling striking down such laws nationwide, has died.

Loving and her white husband, Richard, changed history in 1967 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld their right to marry. The ruling struck down laws banning racially mixed marriages in at least 17 states.

They had married in Washington in 1958, when she was 18. Returning to their Virginia hometown, they were arrested within weeks and convicted on charges of "cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth," according to their indictments. The couple avoided a year in jail by agreeing to a sentence mandating that they immediately leave Virginia.

Read The New York Times article here. And check out Bark Bark Woof Woof's post.

Full post as published by the 13th juror on May 06, 2008 (boomark / email).