Health & Fitness
Loving Day
As a product of interracial loving, Loving Day has a special place of importance and meaning in my heart.
If my mother and father never got together, I would never have been born. And this blog wouldn't exist, and you'd be reading air right now.
Last weekend, June 12, was Loving Day. And I couldn't think of a more appropriate name for such a special and important day.
Not too long ago, in the U.S., my mother and father would not have been able to marry each other. Today, it seems preposterous to ban an interracial couple from matrimony, but that was the law until 1967.
Loving v. Virginia was an important Supreme Court case, but it was also the story of love -- blind and beautiful love. Mildred Jeter, who was black, and Richard Loving, who was white, decided to get married. In 1958, it was illegal for people of different races to marry in the state of Virginia. However, interracial marriage was legal in DC at that time. So Mildred and Richard got married in the District of Columbia and returned to their home state of Virginia to continue their lives together.
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One night, as they slept, the newly-married Lovings were awakened by the police in their bedroom and taken to jail for the crime of being married.
These laws did not only apply to black people and white people; many states also restricted interracial relationships with Asians, Native Americans, Indians, Hispanics and other ethnic groups.
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The Lovings' case went through many levels of the justice system and their appeal was denied every time. Eventually, their case appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided unanimously in their favor. Finally, after nine years of struggle, the Lovings won the right to live together as husband and wife in their home state.
The Lovings' case not only won them their freedom to love, but it also granted the same freedom to every interracial couple in every state in America.
The freedom to love is something most of us take for granted. Like many other freedoms, the right for two consenting adults (no matter race or gender) is not only a civil right but a human right.
As a product of interracial loving, Loving Day has a special place of importance and meaning in my heart. Love is love. There are no caveats.
Peace and love.
Nicole