NATO AIR
05-06-2008, 06:37 AM
Its tragic she went through all that only to have some lousy drunk driver kill her husband in 1975 and terribly wound her.
Nevertheless, an American who triumphed over government stupidity and racism just so she could be left alone to live in peace with her husband.
Quiet Va. Wife Ended Interracial Marriage Ban
By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 6, 2008; A01
Mildred Jeter Loving, 68, a black woman whose refusal to accept Virginia's ban on interracial marriage led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1967 that struck down similar laws across the country, died of pneumonia Friday at her home in Milford, Va.
The Loving v. Virginia decision overturned long-standing legal and social prohibitions against miscegenation in the United States. Celebrated at the time, the landmark case sunk to obscurity until a 1996 made-for-television movie and a 2004 book revived interest in how the young, small-town black and white couple changed history.
A modest homemaker, Loving never thought she had done anything extraordinary. "It wasn't my doing," Loving told the Associated Press in a rare interview a year ago. "It was God's work."
Today, according to the Census Bureau, there are 4.3 million interracial couples in the nation.
That wasn't true in 1958, when then-17-year-old Mildred Jeter and her childhood sweetheart, Richard Loving, a 23-year-old white construction worker, drove 90 miles north to marry in the District. Pretty and slender, she was known by her nickname, "Bean," and she was already pregnant with the first of their three children.......................................
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/05/AR2008050502439_pf.html
Nevertheless, an American who triumphed over government stupidity and racism just so she could be left alone to live in peace with her husband.
Quiet Va. Wife Ended Interracial Marriage Ban
By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 6, 2008; A01
Mildred Jeter Loving, 68, a black woman whose refusal to accept Virginia's ban on interracial marriage led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1967 that struck down similar laws across the country, died of pneumonia Friday at her home in Milford, Va.
The Loving v. Virginia decision overturned long-standing legal and social prohibitions against miscegenation in the United States. Celebrated at the time, the landmark case sunk to obscurity until a 1996 made-for-television movie and a 2004 book revived interest in how the young, small-town black and white couple changed history.
A modest homemaker, Loving never thought she had done anything extraordinary. "It wasn't my doing," Loving told the Associated Press in a rare interview a year ago. "It was God's work."
Today, according to the Census Bureau, there are 4.3 million interracial couples in the nation.
That wasn't true in 1958, when then-17-year-old Mildred Jeter and her childhood sweetheart, Richard Loving, a 23-year-old white construction worker, drove 90 miles north to marry in the District. Pretty and slender, she was known by her nickname, "Bean," and she was already pregnant with the first of their three children.......................................
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/05/AR2008050502439_pf.html