Forty years after the United States Supreme Court declared Virginia's prohibition of interracial marriage unconstitutional, community members revisited the Loving v. Virginia case yesterday.
Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, a black woman, were married in Washington, D.C. in 1958. When the couple returned to Virginia, they were arrested, charged with unlawful co-habitation and sentenced to one year in prison. The sentence was suspended on the condition that they leave Virginia for 25 years.
The couple began a series of lawsuits in 1963. When their case was heard by the Supreme Court, a unanimous decision struck down the Virginia law which prohibited interracial marriage.
"Their courageous decision to challenge racial discrimination remains one of the most compelling social and personal dramas of our time," said Robert Pratt, a childhood neighbor of the couple and a University graduate.
Pratt recounted a recent conversation with Mildred Loving who, according to Pratt, "says that she's always seen herself as an ordinary black woman who fell in love with an ordinary white man."
University Law Prof. Earl Dudley, who was editor-in-chief of the "Virginia Law Review" while the case was pending, said he believes an intense undercurrent of sexual fear motivated such discriminatory restrictions.
He said lawmakers worried, "If they [black men] are allowed to come to our schools, they will soon be sleeping with our girls and want to marry them."
Dudley also spoke about the courage it took for lawyers to address the issue of interracial marriage in 1967. He said he hoped he had given the audience "a sense of how tough a battle this was, how deeply ingrained this problem was."
Philip Hirschkop, lead counsel to the Lovings in their Supreme Court case, spoke last at the event, highlighting the extensive legal battle the Lovings faced. He said 16 states had laws prohibiting interracial marriage at the time of the case. In 2000, Alabama became the last state to repeal such a law. Hirschkop said he condemned the "gross irrationality of the prejudice" that prompted the prohibition of interracial marriage.
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