WEBVTT - 090223 Way Black History Fact - Loving v. Virginia

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<v Speaker 1>All right, it is time for the way black history fact.

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<v Speaker 1>In today's way black history fact comes from history dot

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<v Speaker 1>com and we are talking about Loving versus Virginia. So

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<v Speaker 1>for those who don't know, Loving versus Virginia was a

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<v Speaker 1>Supreme Court case that struck down state laws banning interracial

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<v Speaker 1>marriage in the United States. The plaintiffs in the case

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<v Speaker 1>were Richard and Mildred Loving, a white man and a

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<v Speaker 1>black woman whose marriage was deemed illegal according to Virginia

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<v Speaker 1>state law. With the help of the American Civil Liberties

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<v Speaker 1>Union the ACOU, the Loving's appealed to the US Supreme Court,

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<v Speaker 1>which ruled unanimously that so called anti missagenation statutes were

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<v Speaker 1>unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Demendment. Decision is often cited as

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<v Speaker 1>a watershed moment in the dismantling of Jim Crow race laws.

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<v Speaker 1>So what is missagenation? Loving case was a challenge to

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<v Speaker 1>centuries of centuries of American laws banning misagenation, i e.

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<v Speaker 1>Any marriage or interbreeding among different races. Restrictions on missagenation

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<v Speaker 1>existed as early as the colonial era, and of the

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<v Speaker 1>fifty US states, all but nine states had a law

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<v Speaker 1>against the practice at some point in their history. Early

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<v Speaker 1>attempts to dispute race based marriage bans and court met

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<v Speaker 1>with little success. One of the first and most noteworthy

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<v Speaker 1>cases what was eighteen eighty three's Paced versus Alabama, in

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<v Speaker 1>which the US Supreme Court ruled that in Alabama antime

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<v Speaker 1>missagenation law was unconstitutional because it punished black people and

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<v Speaker 1>white people equally. In eighteen eighty eight, meanwhile, the High

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<v Speaker 1>Court ruled that the states had the authority to regulate marriage.

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<v Speaker 1>By the nineteen fifties, more than half the states in

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<v Speaker 1>the Union, including every state in the South, still had

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<v Speaker 1>laws restricting marriage by racial classifications, and Virginia into racial

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<v Speaker 1>marriage was illegal under nineteen twenty four's Racial Integrity Act,

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<v Speaker 1>while those who violated the law risked anywhere from one

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<v Speaker 1>to five years in a state penitentiary. All right. The

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<v Speaker 1>central figures in Loving versus Virginia were Richard Loving and

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<v Speaker 1>Mildred Jeter, a couple from the town of Central Point

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<v Speaker 1>in Caroline County, Virginia. Richard a white construction worker, and

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<v Speaker 1>Mildred a woman of mixed Black and Native American ancestry.

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<v Speaker 1>The longtime friends who fallen in love in June of

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen fifty eight. They exchanged wedding vows in Washington, d C.

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<v Speaker 1>Where interracial marriage was legal, and then return home to Virginia.

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<v Speaker 1>On July eleventh, nineteen fifty eight, just five weeks after

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<v Speaker 1>their wedding, Lovings were woken in their bed at about

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<v Speaker 1>two am and arrested by the local sheriff. Richard and

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<v Speaker 1>Mildred were indicted on charges of violating Virginia's anti misagination law,

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<v Speaker 1>which deemed interracial marriages of felony. When the couple pleaded

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<v Speaker 1>guilty the following year, Judge Leon M. Zile sentenced them

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<v Speaker 1>to one year in prison, but suspended the sentence on

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<v Speaker 1>the condition that they would leave Virginia and not return

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<v Speaker 1>together for a period of twenty five years. Following their

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<v Speaker 1>court case, the Lovings were forced to leave Virginia and

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<v Speaker 1>relocate to Washington, d C. The couple lived in exile,

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<v Speaker 1>the nation's capital, for several years, and raised three children,

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<v Speaker 1>sons Sydney and Donald, and a daughter, Peggy, but they

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<v Speaker 1>longed to return to the hometown. In nineteen sixty three,

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<v Speaker 1>a desperate Mildred Loving wrote a letter to US Attorney

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<v Speaker 1>General Robert F. Kennedy asking for assistance. Kennedy referred the

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<v Speaker 1>Lovings to the ACLU, which agreed to take their case.

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<v Speaker 1>The Lovings being their legal battle. In November nineteen sixty three,

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<v Speaker 1>with the aid of Bernard Cohen and Philip Hirshkopp, two

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<v Speaker 1>ACLU young lawyers, the couple filed the motion asking for

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<v Speaker 1>Judge Basil to vacate their conviction and set aside their sentences,

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<v Speaker 1>and Basil refused. Cohen and Herkshop took the case to

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<v Speaker 1>the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, which upheld the original ruling.

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<v Speaker 1>Following another appeal, the case made its way to the

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<v Speaker 1>United States Supreme Court in nineteen sixty seven, and Supreme

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<v Speaker 1>Court announced its ruling and Loving versus Virginia on June twelfth,

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen sixty seven, in a unanimous decision that justice is

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<v Speaker 1>found in Virginia's interracial marriage law was in violation of

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<v Speaker 1>the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. These people are

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<v Speaker 1>the reason why you can now marry whoever you want.