Loving Day marks 59th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia

Loving Day marks the 59th anniversary of the June 12, 1967 Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, which struck down Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage. Richard and Mildred Loving brought the case after being arrested and forced to leave Virginia, and the Court held that state bans on interracial marriage violated the Fourteenth Amendment, nullifying similar laws in 16 states. At oral argument Richard Loving told the Court, "Mr. Cohen, tell the Court I love my wife, and it is just unfair that I can't live with her in Virginia." The anniversary matters because the ruling established a federal right to marry across races and helped lay legal groundwork for later marriage equality and civil rights protections.