Love Across the Color-Line
Photograph of Mr. and Mrs. Loving, 1965
Just read this piece about a pair of American heroes that I had never heard of before. I want to make sure that people know who they are and the debt that is owed them by so many of us. Check it out:
RICHMOND, Va. - 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, her daughter said Monday.
Peggy Fortune said Loving, 68, died Friday at her home in rural Milford. She did not disclose the cause of death.
"I want (people) to remember her as being strong and brave yet humble — and believed in love," Fortune told The Associated Press.
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.
"There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the equal protection clause," the court ruled in a unanimous decision. (Read the whole article). You can also learn more about the four decades of legalized "inter-racial" marriage here.
Many of you may know that I am also in a so called "inter-racial" marriage and the son my wife and I are expecting in October will be a fruit of that union. I hope you will join me in remembering Mr. and Mrs. Loving and their family in your prayers and honor in your own way the pioneering spirit of couples like them who have made a special contribution to the advancement of racial equality, unity and justice in America.
"Know thou of a certainty that Love is the secret of God's holy Dispensation, the manifestation of the All-Merciful, the fountain of spiritual outpourings. Love is heaven's kindly light, the Holy Spirit's eternal breath that vivifieth the human soul. Love is the cause of God's revelation unto man, the vital bond inherent, in accordance with the divine creation, in the realities of things. Love is the one means that ensureth true felicity both in this world and the next. Love is the light that guideth in darkness, the living link that uniteth God with man, that assureth the progress of every illumined soul. Love is the most great law that ruleth this mighty and heavenly cycle, the unique power that bindeth together the divers elements of this material world, the supreme magnetic force that directeth the movements of the spheres in the celestial realms. Love revealeth with unfailing and limitless power the mysteries latent in the universe. Love is the spirit of life unto the adorned body of mankind, the establisher of true civilization in this mortal world, and the shedder of imperishable glory upon every high-aiming race and nation."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 27)
9 comments:
Thanks for sharing this with us, Philipe. It's important to remember those who have paved the way.
Phillipe,
Glad you found out about this!
You would probably be interested to read more about how this landmark Supreme Court decision, so aptly titled "Love vs. the State of Virginia", came about. Up until this case in 1967 "interrecial marriage" was still illegal in 14 states.
--It was of special interest to me early on, because I had married in 1968.Once again, I can't remember where I read about it.
And later, by chance, probably in the early 90s, I heard and saw Mrs. Love intervied in a PBS special. Her husband had passed by then.
Here's a taste: these two people were very "ordinary" and humble folks. They both grew up and had deep roots in the same town. They fell in love when they were both in their teens. I think it was immediately after high school graduation that they went to a neighboring state to get married, because it was illegal in Virginia, and returned home.
Mr. and Mrs. Love were aware of the hullabaloo this was going to cause, so framed their marriage certificate and hung it over their bed (!) so that it would be clear to the sherrif, who they knew would knock on their door, that they were legally married. He did, and I believe they were arrested for a time (don't remember this part)
By some means, the young NAACP lawyers, including among them Thurgood Marshall, who were working on challenging segregation, heard about their case and decided that they wanted to take it up. They knew they would lose in local courts, and wanted to take the case so they could eventually bring the whole thing to the Supreme Court. I'm sure you've read how they strategized in this manner--taking seven years-- and were able to challenge legal school segregation, first in local state courts, then up through the system, leading to the landmark "Brown vs. the Board of Education."
Mr. and Mrs. Love had to be convinced, they were just a young couple who wanted to live peacefully. Both of them were also unwilling to relocate to another state, because of the family ties and roots they had in their own town, and somehow they were convinced. Probably the reason so few know about them is because they, themselves, had no desire to make or be used for a political statement.
At the same time I learned about this, as a new mother and new Baha'i, I learned of how 'Abdu'l-Baha brought about the marriage of Hand of the Cause Louis Gregory and Louisa Mathews, and how he said that this interracial union would be the means of assuring racial harmony in the United States. So these two stories crossed each other's paths in my own life.
Somewhat as an afterthought:
Judging from his published remarks in his final years,when he resigned from the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall, a brilliant man with an incisive wit, was bitter, one could say disillusioned, with our justice system. I can only imagine how it felt to him to see school segregation still a reality in our country, despite it being outlawed.
This is yet another example for me of why it is so important for those of who for some reason Baha'u'llah has permitted to recognize Him, and who have chosen to work in social sciences, law, psychology, etc., to bring the knowledge that assurance of the truimph of His Cause and study of the Writings brings can bring into reality in the fields of social sciences, law, etc.--Not in some pie-in-the sky "spiritual" rejection, but bringing the principles to bear on issues of the day.
Judith W.
- Now that I've read the linked article, I apologize for a couple of mistakes in my post
Judith W.
Phillipe,
I don't know about your tastes in movie fair, but, there is a flick that came out in '96 called Mr. and Mrs. Loving it starred Timothy Hutton and Lela Rochon as the Lovings; perhaps you can find it at Block Buster or through Netflix; it's a "B" movie but, I enjoyed it... I like both starring actors and the subject was compelling... there's some footage at the end of the real life Lovings.
Karen
Thank you for your brilliant blog and brining attention to this important topic. There are SO MANY UNSUNG HEROES of Human LOVE.I hope that everyone will find out about Heman Sweatt.....
http://www.bahai.us/node/184
artemis
Thanks Artemis for drawing attention to Heman Sweatt another person a lot of folks probably don't know about.
The passing of Mildred Loving inspires a few thoughts. Somehwat incoherent, but suitable for blogland. I might expand on these in my own blog, which everybody should read because I obsess about my stats, plus, Phillipe trades comments with me.
1. Anyway, just think of the pioneering spirit of Louis and Louisa Gregory, who got married, um, can't think of the exact date, but first quarter of the 20th century. In many places, they had to do a "Driving Miss Daisy" Act, with Louis in front and Louisa in the back.
2. When Barack Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, Loving v. Virginia was still six years away. Whatever his talents and policies, Obama IS different. He is not just the "black" candidate -- although he is -- he is someone that America has been trying for centuries to prevent, erase, or if all else failed, refuse to acknowledge. His presence on the national and even global scene is a challenge to the old racial order -- thus the widespread attempts to treat him as just plain black.
3. Interracial/multiracial families, built on love, are a relatively new phenomenon. Interracial sex is not new. The Thomas Jeffersons, Strom Thurmonds and various masters and overseers of the world were practicing interracial sex all along. Again, verily I say unto thee, multiracial families -- conceived and created AS families -- are new.
Victor Kulkosky
Viktor:
Hello.
Check out Benjamin Banneker, if you haven't already:
He was born 1731, an African American astronomer, mathemetician, inventor, clockmaker, author of an almanac to rival Benjamin Franklin's. Banneker played a major role in surveying the city of Washington, DC, and laying it out. Some historians say the major role.
His maternal grandmother was carried to these shores as a white indentured servant. -- So she was probably a prisoner in England first. After serving out her time, she bought a farm outside of Baltimore, and owned two human beings as slaves. She later married one. I conclude that apparently, this was legal in colonial times. One of her/their (interracial) daughters, Mary, also became a slave-holder, freed all of her slaves, and also married one, "Banaky". These were Benjamin Banneker's parents.
Thomas Jefferson had great difficulty reconciling his theory of the inferiority of Blacks with the acomplishments of Benjamin Banneker. Banneker wrote him a letter in 1791, asserting that the supposed inferiority of Blacks was a false premise: the lack of education and accomplishments of the majority of Blacks in this country was due to the circumstances in which they found themselves. Jefferson replied -- his answer seems to me very political-- saying he recieved the letter, is a well-wisher of Blacks, and is forwarding a copy of Banneker's Almanac to, I believe, the head of the French Academy. Lest we forget, Jefferson he had his own child or children with his own Black slave and "mistress". Sally Hemings was 13 at the time this liason began. This would be considered rape and child abuse now.
Apparently there were legal interracial unions during this period of our American history--although the circumstances in which Benjamin Banneder made his way into this world (both his mother and grandmother freeing a person she held in captivity and then marrying him) make us highly uncomfortable.
No doubt there were more legal unions that we don't know about.
Were any of them "love matches?" on both sides. I'm not sure we know enough to say. But I think the history of interracial liasons and relationships is more complicated, then and now, than we think.
Including the fact that there were some Native American slaveholders, and some Black slave holders.
What we can say with assurance is that 'Abdu'l-Baha's bold step made straight the crooked, laid a foundation for and purified a very twisted history.
His is the foundation for establishing both love and justice into a very polluted and mostly shameful sexual history in our country.
In this vein,-- on the Master and oppression -- sometime back you commented on the deep anti-semetic roots of Europe, so we shouldn't single out an indiviudal, Hitler, or a nation, Germany.
I knew of this history prior to becoming a Baha'i, and it served to increase my suspicion of "Christians" in general.
After becoming a Baha'i. I was at first shocked to read the Master laying the cause for the rise of Nazism and World War II at the foot of the Allies, who after World War I, humiliated the German nation and people and brought them low.
This is really something to think about and ponder.
There is always great danger in the oppressed becoming the opressor--which we continue to witness.
Once again, I have not found a way out of this quagmire, either on a personal or societal level, other than Baha'u'llah's divine process and Plan.
Judith W.
I'm surprised that this couple landmark case was news to you. But pleased that you know about it now.
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