Speaker 1: And now watch move my mic back. You're like that.
Speaker 2: Time we can strike waters from headquarters behind him and
Speaker 2: then the borders.
Speaker 1: We're just tuning into civic cyc Cerri'm your host, Ramsey's
Speaker 1: joh I go by the name q Wards. Indeed, a
Speaker 1: lot more stick around for not the least of witches.
Speaker 1: We're going to have a conversation about replations m M.
Speaker 1: Long overdue in this space, and we're being long over
Speaker 1: new period. We're being hopeful again today. Uh you know,
Speaker 1: I had a conversation. I'll share a little bit about it,
Speaker 1: but yes, always without hope, what are we really doing right?
Speaker 1: I'm also going to talk about Loving Day, which just
Speaker 1: passed on June twelfth. That's the day when interracial marriage
Speaker 1: finally became legal in the United States. And that's a
Speaker 1: good thing. We like that. Without interracial marriage, Maggie b
Speaker 1: no one wouldn't be here, you know, So we we
Speaker 1: like that. But you know, we do have to talk
Speaker 1: about this, and we've chosen today to make it our
Speaker 1: way Black history fact. But first and foremost, let's discuss
Speaker 1: how to become a better ally Baba. Now we're gonna
Speaker 1: start this off with a quote from Malcolm X. By
Speaker 1: the way, this is sponsored by Hip Hop Weekly magazine. Okay,
Speaker 1: so this quote from Malcolm X. Education is the passport
Speaker 1: to the future. For tomorrow belongs to those who prepare
Speaker 1: for it today. All right, So this week's BABA is
Speaker 1: something people of all races and nationalities can consider. We're
Speaker 1: going to turn pain into celebrating life of loved ones
Speaker 1: with scholarships. Okay, so we want to take a moment
Speaker 1: thank all of our Instagram, our social media supporters. If
Speaker 1: you follow us, we're at Civic Cipher Again, every follow, like, message, download,
Speaker 1: et cetera is greatly appreciated. So what happened is this
Speaker 1: past week received a message from one of our supporters
Speaker 1: on Instagram. The name is at Lightfoot Legacy Scholars. It reads, Hello,
Speaker 1: we are a family who's giving away a scholarship to
Speaker 1: an undergraduate STEM student. STEM stands for a science, Technology, Engineering,
Speaker 1: and math, so STEM student in memory of our late father,
Speaker 1: we would love it if you would kindly share this
Speaker 1: opportunity with anyone who might benefit from it. This comes
Speaker 1: from Lightfoot Legacy Scholars dot Org. Okay, I'll read a
Speaker 1: little bit leading scholars to success through the Lightfoot Legacy.
Speaker 1: The Michael J. Lightfoot Legacy Scholarship was established in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two after the passing of our beloved father and grandfather.
Speaker 1: Michael J. Lightfoot believed that anyone can and should make
Speaker 1: a positive difference in the lives of others. Has action
Speaker 1: matched his beliefs through his generous giving to various charities
Speaker 1: committed to fighting in homelessness and promote social justice and
Speaker 1: education for all. Let me grab this okay, So if
Speaker 1: you are someone directly working with students, parents, collegus, businesses
Speaker 1: and communities would like to help out, uh, these young
Speaker 1: folks fulfill their college dreams and can certainly be a resource.
Speaker 1: You want to visit again the website which is Lightfoot
Speaker 1: Legacy scholars dot org or Scholarship America dot org. And
Speaker 1: just in general if you want to donate to a
Speaker 1: scholarship fund or otherwise fund the education of minority minds.
Speaker 1: That is always a standing baba around here. So if
Speaker 1: you want more information, please head to our social media.
Speaker 1: You can find out more about that now. Reparations Okay,
Speaker 1: your first thoughts, Q, talk to me reparations full hearted
Speaker 1: hopelessness or full hearted hopefulness, whichever whichever you want to say,
Speaker 1: the idea that this great country will ever come around
Speaker 1: to the full hearted apology that would be required for
Speaker 1: the conversation on reparations to be authentic and something that
Speaker 1: might be real. I don't see happening in my lifetime. Now,
Speaker 1: that is a fair posture to adopt. A lot of
Speaker 1: people think reparations is money, and around here we get it.
Speaker 1: We understand that narrative that might exist in your communities
Speaker 1: listening to the show Black people always want some for free.
Speaker 1: We know that we know that that's something that has
Speaker 1: been placed on us unfairly. I believe for free is
Speaker 1: an interesting, interesting right, it's super interesting. But you know,
Speaker 1: this is a thing that exists in the in the
Speaker 1: in the world, in the you know, in the narrative
Speaker 1: will say it that way. So let's say, for the
Speaker 1: sake of argument, at least for now we see that. Okay,
Speaker 1: there's something else here. And this is really where I
Speaker 1: wanted to start with this one. Have you ever heard
Speaker 1: about a lawsuit where a person sues another person. Ramses
Speaker 1: sues Q because Ramses feels like he was wronged. I
Speaker 1: was wrong, So I'm suing you, right, and I'm suing
Speaker 1: you for ten thousand dollars, okay, And the court says,
Speaker 1: at the end of it all, you know what, ramses
Speaker 1: Q is guilty, he was culpable, he's responsible. We're not
Speaker 1: going to give you ten thousand dollars, but we will
Speaker 1: rule in your favor the amount of one dollar. Have
Speaker 1: you heard of those sorts of things happening before I have?
Speaker 1: I have? Okay. Now, what it does is it documents.
Speaker 1: It establishes that there was wrong committed, there was harm committed,
Speaker 1: and that there is a set of facts that will
Speaker 1: be chronicled insofar as this part of the story is concerned. Right,
Speaker 1: and we can go from here, right, you can figure
Speaker 1: out another way to seek you know, your recompense from
Speaker 1: the offender or from the universe or whatever, but gain
Speaker 1: your punitive damages elsewhere. However, however, we think that ten
Speaker 1: thousand dollars is too much. As a court, as a
Speaker 1: governing body, we think that's too much. But we will
Speaker 1: say that you were right. Okay. Now, the reason I
Speaker 1: cite that example is because reparations, besides economically empowering black people,
Speaker 1: a people who, as a result of systemic racism, enjoy
Speaker 1: it wouldn't even if I said a fraction. Your mind
Speaker 1: would think a third, but really a tenth of the
Speaker 1: wealth doing the same jobs. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: These are systemic issues, you know, like if you look
Speaker 1: at communities and environments or whatever, this is really what
Speaker 1: we have. A tenth of the wealth. You know, if
Speaker 1: you're college educated, you can expect to make less money
Speaker 1: than a white high school dropout. If you're a college
Speaker 1: educated black person, you can expect to make less money
Speaker 1: than a white high school dropout. I want to make
Speaker 1: sure I say that right for those that do listen
Speaker 1: to my other show that I do on the Black
Speaker 1: Information Network. I do a show called the Black Information
Speaker 1: Network Daily Podcast. I go through all of these things.
Speaker 1: I talk about all of the stuff housing discrimination, of course,
Speaker 1: critical race theory, redlining, the War on drugs, environmental racism,
Speaker 1: the GI Bill, unfair policing, unfair judicial sentencing, you know,
Speaker 1: all of the things that disproportionately affect black people, the
Speaker 1: systemic issues that we have to deal with in this country.
Speaker 1: We haven't talked about medical despairity, we haven't talked about anything.
Speaker 1: All of these things right now, besides remedying the economic disparities.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe not all of them. You know, we
Speaker 1: don't know what the number looks like, or how things
Speaker 1: are divvied out or whatever. But besides addressing them, at least,
Speaker 1: what it does is like those court rulings that only
Speaker 1: rule in favor of one dollar to the plaintiff or whatever.
Speaker 1: It chronicles. It documents, Yes, there was an atrocity, there
Speaker 1: was a wrong being committed, and it's the chronicling. It's
Speaker 1: the coming to terms with the fact that we have
Speaker 1: wronged this group of people. We go on record saying it.
Speaker 1: This isn't no, we're going to give you the right
Speaker 1: to vote, or we're going to stop killing you. No,
Speaker 1: this is saying, yeah, we did that, we took advantage.
Speaker 1: We committed human rights violations. There's no way around that one.
Speaker 1: I don't care who you bought your slaves from. I
Speaker 1: don't care how you describe the treatment of certain slaves
Speaker 1: in certain households. It is a human rights violation. It
Speaker 1: was then, it's still now, it was before then. Right,
Speaker 1: So this country going on record saying yeah, we were wrong,
Speaker 1: and we owe something to try to remedy that. That
Speaker 1: part of reparations cannot be understated enough. We're not talking
Speaker 1: about dollars yet, right, and this is where a lot
Speaker 1: of people tune out of this conversation, So kudos to
Speaker 1: you if you're still listening. But could you imagine how
Speaker 1: impactful that would be? I imagine for myself, Q how
Speaker 1: impactful that would have been to know growing up as
Speaker 1: a child. Again, you got to teach this stuff to kids,
Speaker 1: but you know, I was a kid once. I had
Speaker 1: to learn these things. And the way I learned it was, well,
Speaker 1: they took us from Africa. We got on boats and
Speaker 1: we threw up oatmeal, and then we got here, and
Speaker 1: then we had to work in fields. We didn't have
Speaker 1: good clothes, we didn't get to bathe. They tore us apart.
Speaker 1: And then after doing that for a few hundred years,
Speaker 1: they were like, all right, well, you know cool, thanks,
Speaker 1: get out there and try not to get killed while
Speaker 1: we stack every law against you and change every you know,
Speaker 1: deny you every opportunity to really make something of yourself.
Speaker 1: And every time you managed to break through, we're going
Speaker 1: to come through and burn your town down. You know,
Speaker 1: this is kind of the story I was taught. Now,
Speaker 1: imagine growing up in a world where maybe you can't
Speaker 1: imagine this, but I can't. Where Ramses here's that information,
Speaker 1: and also here's and the government said, yeah, that was
Speaker 1: that was kind of foul. That was wrong that we
Speaker 1: did that. So we're going to do something to try
Speaker 1: to remedy it. How the optics of the narrative shift entirely.
Speaker 1: Here's what I mean. For those of you who are
Speaker 1: listening who are not black, you don't know, and you
Speaker 1: could not know what it's like to feel like you
Speaker 1: come from slaves. There is no honor in that. We
Speaker 1: have found honor in that, but we know there is
Speaker 1: no honor that we've had to build it for ourselves.
Speaker 1: I think it is a human condition that we will
Speaker 1: affirm our livelihood, our right to exist, our beauty, our brilliance, ourselves. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think that that's what we have done. I think
Speaker 1: it's a human condition. Let the tables turn in this
Speaker 1: happen in some white folks. I do believe that they
Speaker 1: would revert to type two and find their humanity. I
Speaker 1: have to press pause mid sentence for it, because we
Speaker 1: don't have to use our imagination. Things like this did
Speaker 1: happen to white people? Oh yeah, yeah, you're right, and
Speaker 1: they got reparations, they got they go ahead, open out loud, apology. Listen,
Speaker 1: so we don't have to try to imagine a world
Speaker 1: where that happened. It did, and we don't want to
Speaker 1: compare traumas and make one. Yeah, that's not why we
Speaker 1: would never do that yet, right, but it's such examples
Speaker 1: exist for every other people, every other group of people
Speaker 1: wronged by this country, except the black slave, who was
Speaker 1: not only robbed of his dignity, self respect, honor, pride,
Speaker 1: but his heritage, their heritage language. I told you about
Speaker 1: a story when I lived in Barcelona, Spain, right, and
Speaker 1: the gentleman asked me where I was from, and you
Speaker 1: know me, I'm very, very proudly told him that Michigan Motown.
Speaker 1: And he says, no, no, no, no, where are you from?
Speaker 1: Which started to get a little confusing because I just
Speaker 1: told him, like, where's your people from? He met, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: my mother she's from making Georgia, small town south of Atlanta, Georgia, USA,
Speaker 1: not Georgia Eastern Europe. So now he's confused because he's like, no, man, brother, like,
Speaker 1: where where are you from? He's pointing to his hand,
Speaker 1: the back of his head being the brown on the
Speaker 1: back of his hand. He knows exactly where he's from right.
Speaker 1: I sit there now confused, being the only person at
Speaker 1: this table of maybe ten people who can't have a
Speaker 1: conversation about where he's from. It was embarrassing. It was
Speaker 1: gut wrenching, It was belittling. It was heartbreaking because I
Speaker 1: realized that the black American is the only person on
Speaker 1: the globe treated like cattle that cannot answer that question.
Speaker 1: So hang on, let me get back in right here.
Speaker 1: So imagine, like you listening, you know, maybe there's a
Speaker 1: rich history. Maybe not, but maybe there is. Maybe you
Speaker 1: know your lineage, you can trace your ancestry back to
Speaker 1: some European country, and you know your great uncle forth
Speaker 1: removed on the whatever side of what. I don't even
Speaker 1: know how family trees work, so forgive me if that
Speaker 1: sounds stupid, but you know, this person was a shoemaker
Speaker 1: for King Leopold the fiftieth or whatever. I don't know.
Speaker 1: That history isn't hard to keep though. You have to
Speaker 1: remember they were not stolen from their families. Yeah, torn apart,
Speaker 1: but displaced on purpose. But think connecting to that, Connecting
Speaker 1: to that, it gives you a sense of identity, It
Speaker 1: gives you something to aspire to something well, you know
Speaker 1: my you know, we did this and you know, my
Speaker 1: folks they came across the Atlantic and they did you know,
Speaker 1: whatever it is. You know, there's incredible stories, the incredible journeys.
Speaker 1: These people that you look up to, right, these are
Speaker 1: your stories, right and the stories that we have, like
Speaker 1: I know my father's father and I think we you know,
Speaker 1: barely started kind of keeping records around my great grandfather.
Speaker 1: You know, beyond that, it's just kind of was whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, and those stories aren't necessarily like I'm very
Speaker 1: proud of my father and his father, but I'm talking,
Speaker 1: I'm speaking in general now, our stories. It's not like
Speaker 1: we aspired, we were able to even aspire to do
Speaker 1: much with the short amount of times and the social
Speaker 1: conditions that were imposed on us by the government and
Speaker 1: this society. Right back to reparations to acknowledge, Okay, there
Speaker 1: was some wrong here and we're trying to remedy that.
Speaker 1: Reparations kind of checks that box. So in other words,
Speaker 1: when I come of age, when seven eight year old
Speaker 1: Ramses starts learning about his history, and you know, why
Speaker 1: does it feel like it might be cooler to be white?
Speaker 1: Why do I'm not really loving this black thing just yet.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I got to be this. This
Speaker 1: is not that type. You know. I'm watching TV. You
Speaker 1: know a little excuse me, subtle things that you learned
Speaker 1: from society. I remember this. I remember that feeling when
Speaker 1: I was five, like, dang, I wish I was white man.
Speaker 1: That looks way better, you know what I mean? What
Speaker 1: a sad thing, right, But I actually me, me, the
Speaker 1: person you're listening to talk. I felt that five years old.
Speaker 1: I remember it plain as day. So having that additional
Speaker 1: element of knowing, hey, the government did this but also
Speaker 1: acknowledged that it was wrong and has tried to kind
Speaker 1: of remedy, at least you understand the why. Okay, we're
Speaker 1: not born bad, we're not born to be poor, we're
Speaker 1: not born to be There was something that happened, and
Speaker 1: our current circumstance is the result of that. There was
Speaker 1: an acknowledgment. It is documented now, it's chronicled into the narrative.
Speaker 1: So before we even talk about money, let's talk about that.
Speaker 1: Now that that's talked about, I want to read something
Speaker 1: to you, all right. There was a preliminary reparations report
Speaker 1: released at the beginning of June, and this is what
Speaker 1: I talked about on my show on the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app. If you want to check it out again
Speaker 1: the Black Information Network Daily podcast. I spoke with a
Speaker 1: woman who's an expert on this. I remember her name
Speaker 1: is Camilla. She uh had five hundred pages of factual
Speaker 1: information and a qualified assessment of what it is based on.
Speaker 1: Hers was for the state of California specifically, but they
Speaker 1: also made a parallel one for the federal government as well.
Speaker 1: And the truth is it should be a required moral
Speaker 1: obligation for everyone to kind of familiarize, familiarize themselves and
Speaker 1: engage with that information. You know, the facts are the facts.
Speaker 1: Until we call it a problem, Well, we're never going
Speaker 1: to come to a solution, right, It's just gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna keep, you know, doing the same thing over and
Speaker 1: over again. The report's executive summary basically details that more
Speaker 1: than fifty percent of the US presidents from seventeen eighty
Speaker 1: nine to eighteen eighty five enslaved African Americans. Today, one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty years after the abolition of slavery, its
Speaker 1: badges and incidents remain embedded in the political, legal, health, financial, educational, cultural, environmental, social,
Speaker 1: and economic systems in the United States of America. Racist, false,
Speaker 1: and harmful stereotypes created to support slavery continue to physically
Speaker 1: and mentally harm African Americans today without remedies specifically targeted
Speaker 1: to dismantle our country's racist foundations and heal the injuries
Speaker 1: inflicted by colonial and American governments. The quote badges and
Speaker 1: incidents of slavery and quote will continue to harm African
Speaker 1: Americans in almost all aspects of life. The report goes
Speaker 1: on for another four hundred ninety eight pages. Now there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people, there's a parallel narrative that exists
Speaker 1: in this country. You know, a lot of we'll call
Speaker 1: it Middle of America. Well, I was born poor. You know,
Speaker 1: my family came here with nothing. We don't have. You know,
Speaker 1: no one gave me a fair shot. I had to
Speaker 1: work for everything I got. Right. I don't know why
Speaker 1: this guy sounds like it's from Texas, but I suck
Speaker 1: with accents. They'll bear with me, right, But you know
Speaker 1: this person right, and from their perspective, they have a
Speaker 1: solid argument. This is why Donald Trump can come in
Speaker 1: and entice these folks, because they have a very one
Speaker 1: sided view of what has happened here. It's very self centered,
Speaker 1: and I get it. Most human beings are. That's kind
Speaker 1: of the nature of being human. We have you know,
Speaker 1: we don't have a hive mind. You know, we are individuals, right,
Speaker 1: So I'm not mad at these people. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: educate these people. I feel like that's the way, you know, again,
Speaker 1: forgiveness when they do come around, I know it. Don't
Speaker 1: laugh at me. I think that it's possible. Man. But
Speaker 1: you know, there's these people exist and they feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody has to go through something. You know,
Speaker 1: the world isn't fair, The world is not a fair place.
Speaker 1: Get over it, you know, these sorts of things, and
Speaker 1: they don't recognize that. Every time we get over it
Speaker 1: where the literally they come and burn the town or
Speaker 1: there are systemic issues, like I say systemic issues, and
Speaker 1: I feel like that's a blanket term. There are specific
Speaker 1: governmental policies enacted to precisely target black people in this country,
Speaker 1: some of which I've detailed already still today too, right
Speaker 1: now talking about back in the day. Right today, I've
Speaker 1: talked to if you if you want to hit the
Speaker 1: website civicside for dot com download this episode. If you're
Speaker 1: on your favorite podcast and re listen. Because when I
Speaker 1: started this segment, I named a bunch of I rattle
Speaker 1: them off. I don't want to do it again because
Speaker 1: I forgot what I said. But there's more than just
Speaker 1: that they exist right now, Okay, Environmental racism is one
Speaker 1: that I'm working on as a piece for this show.
Speaker 1: That's something that happening right now still every day. Doesn't
Speaker 1: affect but white people. Does affect black people and poor people.
Speaker 1: You know, but poor people and black people tend to
Speaker 1: be the same, which is why money is such an
Speaker 1: important part of this specific conversation. Now, I want to
Speaker 1: jump ahead here, so recent report release. Okay. As part
Speaker 1: of California's Historic Assembly Bill thirty one twenty one, enacted
Speaker 1: in September twenty twenty, the California Task Force Study to
Speaker 1: Develop Reparations for Posals for African Americans was formed in
Speaker 1: charge of studying the institution of slavery and it's lingering
Speaker 1: negative effects on living African Americans as well as on society.
Speaker 1: The bill also requires a task Force to recommend appropriate
Speaker 1: remedies compensation, rehabilitation, and restitution for African Americans and with
Speaker 1: a special consideration for sens and persons enslaved in the
Speaker 1: United States, with the final report expected in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: building on months of public hearings, hours of expert, public
Speaker 1: and witness testimony, and numerous records submitted. On June first,
Speaker 1: the Reparation's Task Force released an interim report as well
Speaker 1: as a preliminary set of corrective recommendations, providing an in
Speaker 1: depth interview, the first of its kind, of the harms
Speaker 1: inflicted on African Americans in California, as well as the
Speaker 1: separate one which details the federal harms across the nation
Speaker 1: due to the ongoing legacy of slavery and systemic discrimination.
Speaker 1: Now again, should be excuse me, should be required reading
Speaker 1: for anybody with empathy it really wants to understand the why.
Speaker 1: But let's say you don't have that kind of time.
Speaker 1: I want to employ you one more time that you
Speaker 1: can check out the Black Information Network Daily podcasts. The
Speaker 1: Black Information Network has a daily podcast. It's hosted by
Speaker 1: Rams's job, so I want you to remember it. You
Speaker 1: can go there and download the this is probably a
Speaker 1: few days old, download the one on reparations and get
Speaker 1: all of this game because it's detailed. There explicitly for you,
Speaker 1: and you can understand even more than you do now.
Speaker 1: Moving on, what a show man gay from foreign white
Speaker 1: people fifty four billion dollars. We ain't got it for
Speaker 1: our own black people though, or our own poor. But
Speaker 1: it's neither here nor there. Interesting all right, way, Black
Speaker 1: history fact. This one comes from hip Hop Weekly. We're
Speaker 1: sponsored by Hip Hop Weekly magazine. By the way, shout
Speaker 1: out to the unlucky birdos. One time, Okay, one time.
Speaker 1: June twelfth is a loving day. This is the day
Speaker 1: when interracial marriage finally became legal in the US. So
Speaker 1: as a fun fact, Maggie b Noan's parents. This is
Speaker 1: Againner's our show producer. They're a product of the success
Speaker 1: of this case. There are almost forty years happily married.
Speaker 1: And today's story comes from Britannica dot com. So. In
Speaker 1: Loving versus Virginia, which was decided on June twelfth, nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty seven, the US Supreme Court unanimously struck down Virginia's
Speaker 1: lawbery prohibiting interracial marriages as a violation of the Fourteenth Commendment.
Speaker 1: The appellans, Richard and Mildred Loving of Caroline County, have
Speaker 1: married in Washington DC in June nineteen fifty eight, and
Speaker 1: then returned to Virginia, where they were arrested. After pleading guilty,
Speaker 1: They were forced to leave the state. The American Civil
Speaker 1: Liberties Union, or the ACLU shout out to the ACLU
Speaker 1: one time filed motions and appeals on their behalf, beginning
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty three, and after the Virginia Supreme Court
Speaker 1: of Appeals ruled against Lovings the Lovings in nineteen sixty six,
Speaker 1: the US Supreme Court heard their arguments, and the case
Speaker 1: came after nearly three hundred years of legislation in Virginia
Speaker 1: regulating interracial marriage and carefully defining which citizens could legally
Speaker 1: claim to be white. Two US Supreme Court cases, Paced
Speaker 1: versus Alabama in eighteen eighty three and meritarm Sorry and
Speaker 1: Maynard versus Hill in eighteen eighty eight upheld the constitutionality
Speaker 1: of such laws. In nineteen twenty four, the Act to
Speaker 1: Preserve Racial Integrity banned interracial marriage in Virginia. What a
Speaker 1: weird name, Jesus, The Act to Preserve Racial Integrity. Maybe
Speaker 1: little subtle things like that were why I thought it
Speaker 1: might be cool to be white when I was a kid. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I'll continue while defining a white person as someone who
Speaker 1: has no discernible non white ancestry. It was this law that,
Speaker 1: in the US Supreme Court ruling said denied Virginia's fundamental
Speaker 1: freedom to marry. Loving versus Virginia is a landmark case
Speaker 1: both in the history of race relations in the United
Speaker 1: States and in the ongoing political and cultural dispute over
Speaker 1: the proper definition of marriage. These are the facts of
Speaker 1: the case. The appearance in Loving versus Virginia where Richard
Speaker 1: Petty Loving and his wife Mildred Delores Jeter Loving born
Speaker 1: on October twenty nine, nineteen thirty three, in Central Point,
Speaker 1: Caroline County. Richard Loving was a white man who worked
Speaker 1: as a construction worker. Mildred Loving born on July twenty second,
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine, also in Central Point, was part African
Speaker 1: American and part Indian. Later in her life she identified
Speaker 1: only as an Indian. I bet I know why. After
Speaker 1: traveling to Washington, d c. To obtain legal marriage on
Speaker 1: June second, nineteen fifty eighth, they returned to Virginia, where
Speaker 1: mixed race unions were against the law. They lived downstairs
Speaker 1: in the Central Point home of Mildred Loving's parents. On
Speaker 1: July eleventh, the Commonwealth's attorney for Caroline County, Bernard Mayhorn,
Speaker 1: obtained warrants for the couple's arrest. After attempting to afrehim
Speaker 1: them several times during the day, Sheriff Garnet Brooks found
Speaker 1: the Lovings at home in the early morning hours. A
Speaker 1: few days later, Richard Loving was released after one night
Speaker 1: on a one thousand dollars bomb, which is a lot
Speaker 1: of money back. Then several days later, his wife was
Speaker 1: delivered into the care of her father. In October nineteen fifth,
Speaker 1: the Circuit Court of Caroline County issued an indictment indicating
Speaker 1: that their marriage was in violation of the state law.
Speaker 1: On January sixth, nineteen fifty nine, the Lovings pleaded not
Speaker 1: guilty and waived a jury trial. However, at the end
Speaker 1: of the arguments, they changed their pleas to guilty. Judge
Speaker 1: Leon M. Bazil gave them each a one year suspended sentence,
Speaker 1: provided that quote both accused leave Caroline County and the
Speaker 1: State of Virginia at once and do not return together
Speaker 1: at the same time to said County and State for
Speaker 1: a period of twenty five years. After paying court fees
Speaker 1: of thirty six dollars and twenty nine cents each. The
Speaker 1: Lovings moved to Washington, d C. Where they lived with
Speaker 1: Mildred Lovings's cousin Alex Byrd and his wife Laura. The
Speaker 1: turns of their sentence allowed them to travel to Virginia separately,
Speaker 1: and Mildred Loving returned to Central Point for the births
Speaker 1: of their children. In nineteen sixty three, at the suggestion
Speaker 1: of her cousin, Mildred Loving wrote a letter to the
Speaker 1: US Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, asking him to intervene
Speaker 1: on her and her husband's behalf. Quote I wasn't in
Speaker 1: anything concerning civil rights, and quote Loving later told an interviewer,
Speaker 1: I was well. We were trying to get back to Virginia.
Speaker 1: That was our goal, to get back home. Kennedy referred
Speaker 1: Loving to the National Capital Area branch of the ACOU,
Speaker 1: which in June nineteen sixty three assigned Bernard as Cohen
Speaker 1: of Alexandria to the case. Philip J. Hirkshop, a lawyer
Speaker 1: then doing civil rights work in Mississippi, joined the case
Speaker 1: a few months later. Now I'm going to condense a
Speaker 1: bit of this year because they went through a bunch
Speaker 1: of appeals process to make this happen. We sort of
Speaker 1: now know the way the story went. The legacy of
Speaker 1: Loving Virginia goes as follows. Loving v Virginia established the
Speaker 1: legal basis for a cultural redefinition of marriage. On August thirteen,
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven, the Associated Press reported on the marriage
Speaker 1: of Leona E. Boyd, a white woman, and Romans Howard Johnson,
Speaker 1: a black man, in Kingdom Hall Church in Norfolk. Quote
Speaker 1: the first known interracial marriage in Virginia since the US
Speaker 1: Supreme Court struck down the States miscongeniation congenation. I think
Speaker 1: that's how you say that law in June. Over time,
Speaker 1: the marriages between whites and African Americans became both more
Speaker 1: numerous and more accepted. Same sex marriages, meanwhile, became more disputed,
Speaker 1: with gay rights activists attempting to use Loving VI Virginia
Speaker 1: as a president in their favor. The courts have preferred
Speaker 1: reading the case strictly in terms of race, although in
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, the group Gay and Lesbian Advocates
Speaker 1: and Defenders or GLAD, released a statement that attributed Mildred
Speaker 1: Loving's attributed to Mildred Loving support for same sex marriage.
Speaker 1: After her death, Loving family denied that she held these views.
Speaker 1: Richard and Mildred Loving had been publicly averse through the
Speaker 1: attires and the entire appeals process, living secretly on a
Speaker 1: farm in King and Queen County. At a news conference
Speaker 1: held in the Alexandria office of Cohen and Cohen on
Speaker 1: the day of the Supreme Court ruling, Mildred Loving said,
Speaker 1: I feel free now. Around the same time, she told
Speaker 1: an interviewer that someone had burned across in her mother's
Speaker 1: front yard in Central Point. Richard Loving built himself and
Speaker 1: his wife a house in Central Point and lived there
Speaker 1: until his death in June twenty ninth, nineteen seventy five,
Speaker 1: when a drunk driver struck the car he was driving
Speaker 1: in Caroline County. Mildred Loving survived the crash and died
Speaker 1: of pneumonia at her home on May second, two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight. So now you can marry somebody. It doesn't
Speaker 1: matter what they look like. Still a little bit of
Speaker 1: funny stuff around our brothers and sisters who subscribed to
Speaker 1: the LGBTQIA plus lifestyles. But we'll get there, we'll stay there.
Speaker 1: Love is love and this is your way. Black history
Speaker 1: fact that that happened in this country in order for
Speaker 1: that to be true, because people had to live through that.
Speaker 1: So yes, we'll leave it right there, So thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. Once again. I'm your host, ramses Joh I'll
Speaker 1: go by the name q Ward. Yes, indeed, show producer
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