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Positive Liberty-Mildred Loving's statement.
From Ed Brayton's blog:
On the 40th anniversary of the ruling in Loving v Virginia, MIldred Loving has released a public statement that really must be read. I’m going to post the full text below the fold and encourage others to distribute it far and wide, put it on Fark and Digg and Reddit and anywhere you can for the widest possible reach. Americans need to read this statement and see how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go to protect liberty and equality in this country. Loving for All By Mildred Loving* Prepared for Delivery on June 12, 2007, The 40th Anniversary of the Loving vs. Virginia Announcement When my late husband, Richard, and I got married in Washington, DC in 1958, it wasn’t to make a political statement or start a fight. We were in love, and we wanted to be married. We didn’t get married in Washington because we wanted to marry there. We did it there because the government wouldn’t allow us to marry back home in Virginia where we grew up, where we met, where we fell in love, and where we wanted to be together and build our family. You see, I am a woman of color and Richard was white, and at that time people believed it was okay to keep us from marrying because of their ideas of who should marry whom. When Richard and I came back to our home in Virginia, happily married, we had no intention of battling over the law. We made a commitment to each other in our love and lives, and now had the legal commitment, called marriage, to match. Isn’t that what marriage is? Not long after our wedding, we were awakened in the middle of the night in our own bedroom by deputy sheriffs and actually arrested for the “crime” of marrying the wrong kind of person. Our marriage certificate was hanging on the wall above the bed. The state prosecuted Richard and me, and after we were found guilty, the judge declared: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” He sentenced us to a year in prison, but offered to suspend the sentence if we left our home in Virginia for 25 years exile. We left, and got a lawyer. Richard and I had to fight, but still were not fighting for a cause. We were fighting for our love. Though it turned out we had to fight, happily Richard and I didn’t have to fight alone. Thanks to groups like the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, and so many good people around the country willing to speak up, we took our case for the freedom to marry all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And on June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that, “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,” a “basic civil right.” My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry. Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the “wrong kind of person” for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights. I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about. The country fixed a mess like this before, created by Theocrats..we need to fix it again. 22 comments from 10 users
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posted by
robbwillis
on Jun 18, 2007 at 11:52 AM
Progress is so gradual, it's hard to realize it's happened until you read a story like this. That was only 40 years ago. But multiply that by 100 generations and look how far we've come since the stone age, or how little.
posted by
dusty1215
on Jun 18, 2007 at 11:54 AM
Good point Robb..it kind of floored me as well to realize it has only been 40 years since the Theocrats got their comeuppance when it came to bi-racial marriage..and today, no one can say squat. Hopefully it will be that way about Gay Marriage too. posted by
Hardliner4freedom
on Jun 18, 2007 at 11:58 AM
Bible passage that can be construed to support racial separatism: http://www.biblegateway.com... "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live."
posted by
anglo1
on Jun 18, 2007 at 12:01 PM
Very hard to believe it was as recent as the late 60s. Either I had forgotton or maybe never new that a court decision was necessary for something so basic. Thanks Dusty I will pass it around.
posted by
dusty1215
on Jun 18, 2007 at 12:08 PM
Thank you anglo! :) H4F..Fark racial separatism kind sir :PHow did AllRed miss that one H4F? posted by
randomfactor
on Jun 18, 2007 at 12:11 PM
Thanks for posting this...I hadn't realized it was the 40th anniversary this year. . Exactly the same arguments made against the Loving decision are now being made against marriage equality for gays. Fortunately, exactly the same judicial rebuttals will apply as well. posted by
dusty1215
on Jun 18, 2007 at 12:14 PM
Why, I was happy to oblige RF :)The same bat guano will be used as the excuse against Gay marriage is correct..and civil & human liberty is the only comeback they can not shoot down. posted by
AudreyB
on Jun 18, 2007 at 12:21 PM
For those who think that we haven't progressed in 50 years, I suggest you consider the Loving case. Racism is still alive and well in America, but it's nothing like it was during the Jim Crow years. Sometimes the Supreme Court makes me so proud of our system. posted by
jfrancais
on Jun 18, 2007 at 12:24 PM
...It's hard to imagine that was just 40 years ago. I was just born a little over a decade later.
posted by
AudreyB
on Jun 18, 2007 at 12:26 PM
We baby boomers have seen a lot of changes during our lives. Mostly good.
posted by
jasonsperber
on Jun 18, 2007 at 01:01 PM
Thank you for posting this, Dusty. I was born from an interracial marriage just seven years after Loving v. Virginia, and I never forget that. As for the subject of how far we've come and how far we still have to go, I recommend this NPR piece (be sure to listen to the audio) from the day before the anniversary.
posted by
adampayne
on Jun 18, 2007 at 01:01 PM
Thanks for the great reminder of what the Civil Rights struggle was all about in the Fifties and Sixties. As was noted, we have seen much progress, but still have a long ways to go.
posted by
Hardliner4freedom
on Jun 18, 2007 at 01:32 PM
Anglo wrote, "Very hard to believe it was as recent as the late 60s. Either I had forgotton or maybe never new that a court decision was necessary for something so basic. " In our complacency today, we easily forget just how crushingly repressive and tyrannical our country could be in relatively recent times. It was 1965 (not 1865, or 1765, but 1965) that a state law against birth control was struck down by the Supreme Court in Connecticut. When you read the decision, you will see many of the key phrases that the wacko-right wing ridicules today, such as the "penumbras" in the Bill of Rights. We face this disgraceful and un-American* "culture war" today because many of the people who were alive during the years of extreme repression are still alive today. It wasn't that long ago that sex -- in any context at all -- was an absolutely unspeakable topic. The people who miss the "good old days" of Saudi-style cultural repression want it back -- and that's the movement that has overcome the Republican Party. . Dusty wrote, "H4F..Fark racial separatism kind sir :P How did AllRed miss that one H4F?" Gays are the "evil" to be beaten at the moment. Trust me -- win that battle, and they'll move on to all those other battles that some of us are old enough to remember. * Un-American, because there is absolutely no placefor "culture wars" in a society that supposedly respects and guarantees liberty and justice for all. posted by
randomfactor
on Jun 18, 2007 at 02:52 PM
No doubt they are after Griswold, ultimately. That's why I choose to fight the battles over abortion and gay marriage equality. To paraphrase a moron, we have to fight them *HERE* so we don't have to fight them *THERE.*
posted by
Hardliner4freedom
on Jun 18, 2007 at 03:02 PM
Aye, because that's where the battles are right now. Make no mistake -- if you think their homophobia is bad, you ain't seen nuttin' 'til you've had a run-in with their heterophobia. The hatred reserved for people like Kinsey and Margaret Sanger makes their hatred for Barney Frank look like a love-in.
posted by
sagefever
on Jun 18, 2007 at 03:23 PM
In 1969 my girl friend was part of the first openly interracial couple on the B.H.S campus.Shortly after they got together,her counselor called me in "to chat" She warned me about how hard etc "things" were going to be for them,would I "talk some sense into her"..no I would not.My boyfriend had a apartment in the O.D. then, her boyfriend would not come to visit there.To my count that makes our "10 year delay" a tad longer on this issue..but it is better, and as always much room for improvement.
posted by
dusty1215
on Jun 18, 2007 at 06:59 PM
My anglo father was considered the 'black sheep' of his family because he married a hispanic women in 1951 here in So. Cali. The obvious bigotry was something I even felt as a small child. It was suffocating at times to grow up with that in your OWN family. Eventually they all 'got over it', but it still stings to this day. Half my siblings look 'white the other half look 'hispanic'. Those that look white have never dealt with racism except to stick up for the rest that did as children. As Sage states, just because you can't legally take people to task for marrying outside their 'race', doesn't mean its dead and gone. Good ol Bako and bigots nationwide still practice this sickening and disgusting method of racism. posted by
sagefever
on Jun 18, 2007 at 07:15 PM
My deceased dad ,in 1988 never spoke to me again,after I married a man with a Hispanic surname..Funny thing he's Spanish~some of whom take great insult if one calls them Mexican.
posted by
dusty1215
on Jun 18, 2007 at 07:19 PM
My maternal grandmother whom I barely remember, corrected me as a child. She said "We are hispanic, not mexican". I argued with her about that and she got very cross with me, telling me I was too young to understand. I told her it was no big deal..and its not..unless your a bigot of some kind.
posted by
dusty1215
on Jun 18, 2007 at 07:21 PM
Of course I didn't tell her she was a bigot..I didn't know that word as a child..I just thought she made a big freaking deal out of nothing..just like my paternal grandfather made a big deal out of the color of my brown skin vs the color of my sisters white skin.
posted by
sagefever
on Jun 18, 2007 at 07:30 PM
I hear you Dusty~color can make no difference,but minds sure can.
posted by
dusty1215
on Jun 18, 2007 at 07:40 PM
Sage, Small ignorant minds can make such a difference in a childs life..sad ain't it?
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