05/06/2008
Mildred Loving Dies
Mildred Loving, whose 1967 Supreme Court case against the state of Virginia over interracial marriage resulted in the banishment of the last of the nation's segregation laws, died on May 2 at the age of 68. The final sentence in Loving's NYT obituary makes note of her June 2007 statement to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia.
Said Loving at the conclusion of that statement:
"The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry. Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the “wrong kind of person” for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights. I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is 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."
May she rest in peace.
Read the full, powerful statement AFTER THE JUMP...
***STATEMENT by MILDRED LOVING***
Loving for All
By Mildred Loving
Prepared for Delivery on June 12, 2007,
The 40th Anniversary of the Loving vs. Virginia Announcement
When my late husband, Richard, and I got married in Washington, DC in 1958, it wasn’t to make a political statement or start a fight. We were in love, and we wanted to be married.
We didn’t get married in Washington because we wanted to marry there. We did it there because the government wouldn’t allow us to marry back home in Virginia where we grew up, where we met, where we fell in love, and where we wanted to be together and build our family. You see, I am a woman of color and Richard was white, and at that time people believed it was okay to keep us from marrying because of their ideas of who should marry whom.
When Richard and I came back to our home in Virginia, happily married, we had no intention of battling over the law. We made a commitment to each other in our love and lives, and now had the legal commitment, called marriage, to match. Isn’t that what marriage is?
Not long after our wedding, we were awakened in the middle of the night in our own bedroom by deputy sheriffs and actually arrested for the “crime” of marrying the wrong kind of person. Our marriage certificate was hanging on the wall above the bed. The state prosecuted Richard and me, and after we were found guilty, the judge declared: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” He sentenced us to a year in prison, but offered to suspend the sentence if we left our home in Virginia for 25 years exile.
We left, and got a lawyer. Richard and I had to fight, but still were not fighting for a cause. We were fighting for our love.
Though it turned out we had to fight, happily Richard and I didn’t have to fight alone. Thanks to groups like the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, and so many good people around the country willing to speak up, we took our case for the freedom to marry all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And on June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that, “The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men,” a “basic civil right.”
My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.
Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the “wrong kind of person” for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.
I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is 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.
***END STATEMENT***
Posted 9:54 AM EST by Andy Towle in Deaths, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, News | Permalink
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God bless her. If only the world were filled with her brand of courage, insight, compassion and wisdom...
Posted by: DAVID | May 6, 2008 2:11:14 PM
Deeply saddened to hear this news, while Mrs Loving might have been uncomfortable in life about politics, she was a revolutionary! My sympathies to her family and friends, may she rest in peace.
Boys: behave yourselves!!
Posted by: SeanR | May 6, 2008 2:26:27 PM
Derrick,
Please accept apologies. I did not know that you are African-American. Therefore, my comments about privilege, racism, etc. were ill-advised and stupid.
However, I don't care that society likes to group people together or that there have been two occasions of women of color shooting off their mouths any more than I care about the Rev. Wright. They're individuals. If someone is racist enough to view all blacks as responsible for the words of a few, screw 'em! I don't blame all white people when I suffer from the racist actions of one person. I blame the person and the culture that breeds their way of thinking.
I'm sick of having to cringe because some minority has done something and I have to worry what the white or straight folks will think of me. Blech! That goes to the heart of the whole Jeremiah Wright controversy and making guilt by association the standard. Why is it that every black politician has to denounce Louis Farrakhan? I don't see every white politician denouncing David Duke.
Louis Farrakhan is the media created black boogeyman, a very pale skinned one who admits that his father was a Jewish man. Reality check: the majority of African-Americans are Christian. Farrakhan is a Muslim. He's also not part of the life of the majority of African-Americans who don't flock to his temple, to buy his books, or emulate his messages. Yet, still Farrakhan, who is an old dying man who walked off the stage years ago is trotted out as scary black man. Fear not, there's now another pale-skinned African-American man to demonize in Rev. Wright.
(Think about it, some white people are afraid of the Rev. White, a man who looks more white than black, as the epitome of anti-white thought. As if white doesn't wake up and know every day that he has white ancestry.)
The evil by genetic association game is well played in the media: Fox's Bill O'Reilly has his daily segment on how some illegal immigrant committed a crime and therefore all immigrants (especially the brown ones) are guilty. Fox's John Gibson can make disgusting remarks about Heath Ledger because he played a gay man in a movie and it's okay.
John McCain sought the endorsement of John Hagee. Is McCain being held to the fire? No, as Frank Rich pointed out in the New York Times. Pat Buchanan can make his comments and still be invited day after day to spout his filth on MSNBC. The same for Ann Coulter whose racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and just awfulness has not diminished her presence as a pundit.
So, no, I don't feel the need to feel any guilt for anyone else's actions. If someone expects me to because I might share similar genes, screw 'em. Most white people don't associate the sins of their own as reflecting all white people. Why should a brown man, black man, or gay man do so? Doesn't that give in to the bigoted paradigm?
The Lovings' fight was against the premise that there was such a thing as guilt by genetic association based on white supremacy and the Biblical myth of the Curse of Ham!
Posted by: noah | May 6, 2008 2:34:52 PM
Anyone who is a regular here knows that the last thing Derrick is bigoted. He is always open minded and thoughtful. Noah while you may ahve missunderstood his post it was sad to see that Andy's tribute to this wonderful woman was side tracked by you, no matter how well meaning, lets just say farewell to a woman who left this earth better than she found it.
Posted by: Patrick NYC | May 6, 2008 2:48:44 PM
Rip Mrs. Loving - A true American Hero!
Posted by: Giovanni | May 6, 2008 2:59:21 PM
Patrick NYC:
All these issues are so complexed and wrong but you hit the nail on the head.
This woman is formidable, we loose another great person.
Posted by: Jamie Boy | May 6, 2008 3:16:36 PM
NOAH,
well written (and well thought out) as usual. The only thing I disagree (respectfully disagree, now) with you about is even if my comment was written by a white poster I don't see how it came across as racist. The media constantly highlights black homophobia when there is so much evidence that white homophobia still dominates many parts of the country, and is far more damaging to gay people's rights--look at the damn Bush White House, for God's sake. Yet, anti-gay behavior from blacks gets so much attention--whether it's black ministers to black Rap musicians... to black women school administrators in Ohio & Memphis, Tennessee. And too many white gays make no distinction between the two homophobic school administrators and sympathetic black women like Mrs Loving, Coretta Scott King, and so many others. No black FAGGOT criticizes black homophobes as harshly as I do, but I won't have all black people painted as ignorant homophobes.
So, I looked at this thread (on Mrs Loving's death & her legacy) as an opportunity to say, "look here Towleroad visitors, here is a black woman that faught & sacrificed for justice, and even now, she fights for justice FOR GAY PEOPLE TOO. And again, she is a Black American.
Noah, thanks for your 2nd comment today. I was so mad that I missed the end-of-the-semester department luncheon here at work. But that's all right, my waistline thanks you.
Well, we end this misunderstanding in the positive spirit of Mrs Mildred Loving....as JIMMYBOYO predicted.
Peace, NOAH.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | May 6, 2008 3:19:38 PM
After looking into this case I found out that Judge Bazile died a few months before the Supreme Court ruling. It’s too bad that he was not around to see his hateful and bigot opinion be over ruled.
R.I.P. Mrs. Loving. A very brave woman.
Posted by: Dave | May 6, 2008 3:50:18 PM
Rest in Peace Mrs. Loving.
You and Richard were, are and always will be heroes to the gay and lesbian community.
Your courage and your committment to the struggle for fairness and equality, not just for yourselves but for others, should be an example to us all.
I pay homage to your life and your legacy.
Namaste my sister.
Posted by: Zeke | May 6, 2008 5:32:22 PM
41 years later we stand a real chance of having a man who was born to an inter-racial couple become our President! That means there is hope for overcoming the bigotry that prevents the recognition of gay marriage. I hope I'm around in 41 years to vote for a gay President.
PS I'm not a lawyer. I assume Andy's quote from the Supreme Court decision is exact, “The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men,” a “basic civil right.”
Read literally, this sanctions marriage between men.
RIP Mrs. Loving and thank you for your courage.
Posted by: Ted | May 7, 2008 12:18:09 AM
While I knew about the Loving case in a very general sense I was incredibly moved by Mrs. Loving's 2007 statement which I had never read -- it gives me hope that some day we (gays and lesbians) might just have a chance for full marriage equality.
I also find it ironic that while she so eloquently stood up for our freedom to marry there are always those who are willing to withhold our freedom to marry with statements that the Loving vs. Virginia case is in no way similar to our fight for full marriage equality. Thankfully one courageous woman knew they were so very similar.
RIP Mrs. Loving.
Posted by: robertmalcolm | May 7, 2008 1:06:35 AM
I read this posting every few months to remind me of the true meaning of life. Love. Thank you for leaving this up for us and the hope that I will one day enjoy this level of love. :-)
Posted by: David | Oct 19, 2008 10:57:45 PM