Loving Day

“Landmark of Love: Loving v. Virginia.”

In 1967, United State Supreme Court civil rights decision Loving v. Virginia set the precedent for interracial constitutional love. The background on loving is the family name of Mildred Loving—an African-American, Native American woman—and Richard Loving, a white man who had been in prison for violating Virginia’s miscegenation statute by getting married.

The Supreme court’s unanimous decision determined this prohibition was unconstitutional and ended all race based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States. This event is marked by a nationwide celebration known as National Loving Day, which annually commemorates the landmark civil rights decision Loving v. Virginia.

The most significant aspect of this precedent, Loving v. Virginia, is that couples who were or are either in interracial relationships or were the offspring of interracial relationships, indeed, should be mindful to know that this landmark case broke the interracial barriers by being the offspring of interracial parents or had partners of another race.

This case provides those of us who come from interracial relationships with the grand opportunity to share our life experiences, to learn from one another, and to rejoice in the American diversity that they and their loved ones proudly represent. Loving empowered citizens to marry whomever they love without government sanction and/or interference.

We’ve striven forward from the precedent case of Loving v. Virginia. But there is plenty to do in our nation’s tortured race relations, for those of us in interracial relationships or unconventional life partnerships know there will always be people with the tenacity and integrity, like the Lovings, who have the determination and wherewithal to fight for what they believe in, creating a better world for those of us who come from the offspring of interracial relationships and/or had or have partners of another race.

Unlike Tina Turner’s version of “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” According to this United States Supreme Court precedent, love has everything to do with it. Everyone should think loving versus Virginia by celebrating their love and sacrifice annually for fighting arduously to become one with each other, regardless of their interracial differences, by taking their case all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court and get their unanimous vote by setting a historical landmark of love, Loving v. Virginia.

The voice and face inside the nation of prisoners, Bryant Arroyo—for Prison Radio.

These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.