It is what one would call a complex world or not. But it one full of intriguing events, misconceptions, love, harmony, war, peace, injustice, intolerance and all other terms according to a person’s preference. To add to that, it is one where we can find ourselves as the protagonists as well as the antagonists. The movie ‘The Loving Story’ portrays a real life event of intolerance to racial marriages in what the state of Virginia and others term as miscegenation laws. These were laws that enforced racial segregation at the level of marriage and intimate relationships by criminalizing interracial marriage and sometimes also sex between members of different races. “Documenting many pivotal moments in the case, it adds a dash of something rarely seen in the grand narrative of the American Civil Rights struggle: romance.” —Chicago Sun-Times
Richard and Mildred Loving were a mixed race couple where Richard was white and Mildred a mixed race of African American and Native American. It all started when the two fell in love and got married in Washington D.C. The Loving’s then returned to Virginia as a couple but were criminally charged for breaking the state’s Racial Integrity Act. Just over a month after the Loving’s homecoming, police raided their place at 2 a.m., arrested the couple, and threw them in jail. Leon Bazile, a judge for the Caroline County Circuit Court, convicted them on felony charges. “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay, and red, and he placed them on separate continents,” the judge wrote. “The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” With that, the long road journey to their right to live in Virginia as a couple began.
This has led to several topics of discussion. First, Richard and Mildred’s case set them in a certain place in history. It was a social context of miscegenation that they found themselves in as well as political. It dealt with the social side in that it was about love and marriage. It was also political as it involved state laws that eventually have to be changed with the last law of anti-miscegenation being scraped in Alabama in the 2000. The question of race had not been completely accepted so the outcome of case though much in favor to the couple still hang in the balance and probably why it took nine years to be rule for the Loving’s. Various states also supported the miscegenation. Those whose Laws were repealed after the 1967 Supreme Court Ruling include Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Arizona, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.
The case of the Loving’s also brought on the question of rights. The historical context of the Racial Integrity Act. The Racial Integrity Act required that a racial description of every person be recorded at birth and divided society into only two classifications: white and colored (essentially all other, which included numerous American Indians). It defined race by the “one-drop rule”, defining as “colored” persons with any African or Indian ancestry. It also expanded the scope of Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage (anti-miscegenation law) by criminalizing all marriages between white persons and non-white persons. This must have been based on slave ownership past America. It created a tension of violation of rights to the individual by the state’s power. In 1967, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Loving’s, striking down the Virginia law, and all state anti-miscegenation laws, as unconstitutional per the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The legal process was a long one. Almost a decade it took. At first as Mildred Loving put it she thought her husband knew about the law but did not figure that they would be persecuted. They then turned to Judge Leon Bazile of the Virginian’s Supreme Court to overrule the law but he refused and so they turned to the U.S Supreme Court. By counsel of and with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Loving’s brought a suit which sought to overturn the law. They also had two very outstanding lawyers; Philip Hirschkop and Bernard Cohen. They made their case by questioning why Loving’s jail sentence was unconstitutional and not addressing whether the law was constitutional. They also challenged the judicial process by asking what the 14th amendment said and how the Loving’s case was related to it and that Judge Bazile’s argument on God’s separation was a gift to their case. In regard to the federal verses state authority, it can be seen that in this instance that the power of the federal courts is greater and may portray itself as empathetic whole the state authority is portrayed as brutal and inhumane.
Finally, the Lovings just wanted to live as couple in Virginia. “I wasn’t involved with the civil rights movement,” Mildred said one day. “We were trying to get back to Virginia. That was our goal.” It wasn’t until 1967 that they noticed the view of its implications change. “It’s not so much about me and Richard because we could go away. But it’s the principle; it’s the law. I don’t think it’s right. And if we do win, we will be helping a lot of people.” —Mildred Loving. The Lovings case seems to resonate with today’s marriage legal struggles especially same sex marriages. They are similiar in that they were once illegal and highly controversial. But they are different in that same sex marriages are still illegal in many states and countries all over the world and that it defies biology. “Using evocative photographs, newly unearthed footage and interviews with Lovings’ daughter and lawyers, the film reveals the power of love to overcome bigotry.” —Blackvoices, The Huffington Post
In conclusion, the film is effective in bringing out the racist past of the U.S using personal and poignant accent.
Reference
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1759682/
