"The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men."
Few cases were more aptly named than Loving vs. Virginia, which pitted an interracial couple - seventeen year old Mildred Jeter, who was black, and her childhood sweetheart, a 23 year old white construction worker, Richard Loving against Virginia's laws banning marriage between blacks and whites. After marrying in Washington D.C. and returning to their home state in 1958, the couple was charged with unlawful cohabitation and jailed. According to the judge in the case, Leon M. Brazile, "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." Judge Bazile sentenced the Lovings to a year in prison, to be suspended if the couple agreed to leave the state for the next 25 years.
The Lovings left Virginia and went to live with relatives in Washington D.C. When they returned to visit family five years later, they were arrested for traveling together. Inspired by the civil rights movement, Mildred Loving wrote to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy for help. The couple was referred to the ACLU, which represented them in the landmark Supreme Court case, Loving vs. Virginia (1967). The court ruled that state bans on interracial marriage were unconstitutional.
This Documentary Novel was written beautifully. I am not a huge reader or a huge fan of documentary novels, but this novel was the best I have read in a long time. It made me understand the Loving vs. Virginia case and made me feel sympathy for the people who were involved. It also shed light on Civil Rights in the late 1960's. Poetic, and very illustrated with courage and hope.
I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the copy.
1 comment:
Is there a movie coming out soon about this couple? Sounds very interesting.
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