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Loving v. Virginia, June 12 1967


Today is the 40th anniversay of the landmark decision by the US Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia, which overturned state anti-miscegenation laws and legalized interracial marriage.

Who couldn’t vigorously argue against “the church” involving itself in “the state” when you have judges who base their opinions on such balderdash as “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. … The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”

That quote is from Judge Leon Bazile in a lower-court 1965 decision upholding an original ruling that held that interracial marriage was illegal and… immoral in the eyes of god?

Here’s more on the Lovings at NPR.

The Lovings originally married in Washington DC in June of 1958. Interracial marriage was legal in DC at that time. They then moved to Virginia as a married couple.

Four months later, Virginia indicted the Lovings with a charge of violating Virginia’s ban on interracial marriages. They pleaded guilty, were convicted, and were allowed to avoid jail time by leaving Virginia.

Equal Protection

Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution provides:
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”



posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 at 1:18 pm and is filed under loving-v-virginia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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