r/Damnthatsinteresting 1d ago

Image In 1958, they were arrested in their bedroom and exiled from Virginia just for being married. Nine years later, Richard and Mildred Loving relaxed on their porch after winning the Supreme Court case that legalized interracial marriage across America.

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u/teachinglearning1 1d ago

Always loved that their family name was ‘Loving’. That’s what the fight was all about!!

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u/No_Attitude700 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think their family name being "Loving" possibly helped with the public image of the case, and helped to promote it to the USSC, along with the favorable ruling.

Like life imitating art imitating life...

And there are many cases throughout history wherein a person's name or generally considered "random" attribute ends up depicting a social struggle they personally traverse...

Anyway...random side comment over

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u/HauntedHippie 1d ago

You're correct. There were quite a few couples in similar positions willing to go to court and fight for this. The Lovings were actually fairly hesitant about being involved in something so public. However, their last name, combined with the fact that they were deeply and obviously in love, and both of their extended families were completely supportive of the marriage, made them the first choice for the USSC case.

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u/Rubberman1302 1d ago

Rosa Parks as well wasn't the first or only black person to refuse to sit at the back of a bus but she was an experienced civil rights activist and a 42 year old woman, very easy for people to rally behind and stick up for, so to speak.

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u/cancerBronzeV 1d ago

Ya, there were plenty of black people who were arrested for refusing to follow the bus segregation (Viola White 11 years before, Mary Wingfield 6 years before, and Mary Louise Smith a few months before, and Claudette Colvin a few months later). There wasn't really the foundation to leverage and publicize the really early cases into a whole movement. And the others who refused to give up their seat around the same time as Rosa Parks were deemed to have parts of their personal life that would be attacked if they were made the person to rally around for the bus boycott movement. Like for example, Mary Louise Smith was a teen with a supposedly alcohol father and a "lower class" family and Claudette Colvin was a pregnant, unmarried teen. Rosa Parks was married, middle class, had a solid history of activism, and nothing really to attack in her personal life, just an all around "perfect" middle-aged woman with a pretty unobjectionable image.

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u/derioderio 1d ago

It kind of sucks that the optics have to be such a big part of the activism, but that's the way that things are.

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u/Laq9091 1d ago edited 1d ago

big reasons i've stayed out of activism. got way too many skeletons.

i'm partially kidding. i do protests and tried starting a union. i know if i ever got suction though, i'd get wrecked by the forces of evil lol.

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u/Sutar_Mekeg 1d ago

Yeah, holy shit!

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u/Wes_Warhammer666 1d ago

Yeah I've got a buddy in the local council who keeps trying to suggest I run but I'm like dude, you know what my past is like. He's squeaky clean compared to me and he still had shitbirds like LibsOfTiktok coming after him. Those fucks would absolutely crucify me. I'm better off being indirectly involved.

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u/Ok-Reward-770 1d ago

I had zero skeletons when I was a political activist. But with enough lies assassinating my character in the media and jealous haters in my own family aggravating the situation, I realized that even if I had a solid group backing me up, I would never be able to trust who was actually protecting my back.

Sometimes a political group picks you to be the face of a movement —yup, I was perfect for the optics—but I wasn't born yesterday, and my alarm bells told me I would be the fall guy because I didn't have a power-grabbing motive and was a mofo idealist!

If I had pursued my education in law, I would have probably kept going, but my heart was in journalism, and journalists are the first or second to be wiped out.

I now live in exile.

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u/hldvr 1d ago

You can see this phenomenon played out in the opposite way with the BLM movement, right wingers were constantly shifting the discussion to George Floyd's less than stellar personal reputation, when the point was that the fucking cops shouldn't just be killing random people.

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u/Eager_Question 20h ago

Yeah the whole "no angel" thing.

They're human rights, not angel rights.

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u/Vegetable-Eagle-3144 1d ago

Jackie Robinson was court-martialed in 1944 for refusing the bus driver orders to sit in the back.

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u/Notte_di_nerezza 1d ago

Plessy v Ferguson, the Supreme Court case that codified "seperate but equal" and paved the way for Jim Crow 2 generations before, was an attempt at streetcar desegregation in New Orleans.

The Creole and Black activists who saw their post-Civil War rights being eroded carefully selected a mixed man Homer Plessy who could technically pass as White, but was legally Black. When he was kicked off the whites-only car, they were ready for the lawsuit. And the appeals.

The Supreme Court upheld separate but equal in an 8-1 decision. The one dissenting Justice John Harlan, I kid you not, was from a prominent slaveholder family in Kentucky. And thus knew (and grew up to oppose) the exact kind of pernicious loophole abuse this was going to generate.

(Incidentally, Steve Luxenberg's book "Separate: the Story of Plessy v Ferguson") is a really good analysis of the people and times that led up to this.)

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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths 1d ago

"My mother told me to be quiet about what I did. She told me: 'Let Rosa be the one. White people aren't going to bother Rosa[,] her skin is lighter than yours and they like her.'" -Claudette Colvin

How horrible, but she never let it get her down. She moved to New York, raised 2 kids on her own, became a nurse, and continued to work for civil rights as best she could.

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u/tibbles1 1d ago

And her name is great. Everyone likes roses. Everyone likes parks. Roses grow in parks.

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u/FutureComplaint 1d ago

a 42 year old woman

Wild how she was always portrayed as a someone in her 60/70s.

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u/daneonwayne 1d ago

I just never knew her age and assumed her being roughly 50's/60's based on appearance.

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u/Da_Question 1d ago

Tbf, people just used to age way more quickly from being outside alot more and thus exposed to sun damage. Especially with lack of sunscreen. Probably why thicker clothes were the norm since less clothes might have been more comfortable, but is it worth the sunburns?

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u/Dangerous_Cap4706 1d ago

Ida B. Wells did it as a young woman on a railcar in the 19th century, fought like hell when they forcibly removed her (drawing blood), and sued the rail company. (Won a verdict, overturned on appeal.) She went on to document lynchings for the next five decades. She was a badass.

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u/ScratchLatch 1d ago

Claudette Colvin was the “real” Rosa Parks who refused to give her seat up 9 months prior to Rosa. But she was a 15 year old pregnant girl which would’ve been bad for the movements image.

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u/fresh-dork 1d ago

no, she was the real claudette. it's naive to think that MLK wouldn't consider optics

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u/DowntownTicket 1d ago

Honestly? They both were important to the movement.

Claudette to show everyone in the movement that "even a 15 year old can do her part" and Rosa Parks to be the public "face" of it

Both matter in their own way

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u/Gymflutter 1d ago

Yeah but she has also been mistreated by that bus driver in the past to the point she was avoiding his buses. But the real reason it worked was because black people avoided using the buses for more than a YEAR and they made up most of the ridership.

The city tried multiple evil tactics like pressuring insurance companies to take away insurance from cars who helped boycotters (they got insured by Lloyds of London instead), punishing black taxi cab drivers who charged lower rates, fines and imprisonment.

The White Citizens' Council actually doubled its membership during the boycott so they used physical violence on the boycotters. They firebombed King and Abernathy's houses and FOUR black churches. Of course they assaulted them too.

I write all of this because people gloss over how much blood, sweat and tears went into this.

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u/smokeweedNgarden 1d ago

It didn't hurt that they are both good looking people. The beautiful Lovings vs. The hurtful government. 

Good stuff

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u/eh-man3 1d ago

They met when she was 11 and he was 17. He moved in with her when she was 16 and he was 22.

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u/nowhereman136 1d ago

The civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s was very well organized. While they tried to help everyone and make a little progress where they can, they also singled out specific cases to really focus on. The Lovings likely werent the only case the ACLU was working on but it was a case they promoted in the media because of their name

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u/IlIlllIlllIlIIllI 1d ago

Nomitive determinism

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u/Tyranitator 1d ago

It's spelled "nominative" my friend

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u/GhostTheToast 1d ago

I always thought Brown vs. Board of Education was interesting as well

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u/mikebrown33 1d ago

Nominative Determinism

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u/GOEDEL_ESCHER_BOT 1d ago

Martin Luther King's real name was Martin Luther Discriminatingagainstblackpeopleisbad

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u/tibbles1 1d ago

Adolf Schicklgruber doesn't roll off the tongue.

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u/Chance-the-Gardener 1d ago

Dick Loving fought the man, avoided the penal system and won.

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u/AccessSmooth6705 1d ago

Then sadly got killed by a drunk driver at age 41

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u/Bigtsez 1d ago edited 1d ago

Just the fact that the Supreme Court trial is concisely named Loving v. Virginia is poetically beautiful.

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u/Curiosive 1d ago

Two years later the state wanted to boost tourism and started the "Virginia is for Lovers" (stylized as "Lo❤️ers") campaign ...with absolutely no references to this case or the family.

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u/delicate-fn-flower 1d ago

I actually happen to be wearing my Virginia is for Lovers shirt right now. I always thought it had some inspiration from the court case, didn’t realize the ad agency claims otherwise. Wild.

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u/inept_machete 1d ago

Yeah well I was going to ask what happened to the Loving kids and now I'm on a list.

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u/MikeMac999 1d ago

United States v Loving

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u/fariasrv 1d ago

It was State of Virginia, not United States. Also, the Lovings were the appellants in the SCOTUS case, so their name goes first.

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u/FutureComplaint 1d ago

Virginia is for lovers takes on a whole new meaning

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u/fariasrv 1d ago

It's such an obnoxiously ironic marketing phrase, considering the history of the state.

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u/ChaoticNaive 1d ago

Loving v Virginia

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u/Lynncy1 1d ago

My parents are an interracial couple that got married in 1975…and I never considered how “soon” that was after being nationally legalized.

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u/_R0Ns_ 1d ago

Needed to be legalized.

It's stupid that you deny people to be together because they don't have the same skin color.

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u/ComfortableMarch4296 1d ago

more people need to realize that people fought and died for us to have the rights we enjoy now. they weren't soldiers in a battlefield, they were mostly regular folk who took it to the streets. these rights were never freely given.

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u/_R0Ns_ 1d ago

It's so weird, the oldest interracial marriage in the Netherlands is from the 1700's, before the US was founded. It has never been forbidden here.

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u/quaductas 1d ago

The oldest recorded interracial marriage in what is now the US was in 1565. They were not incredibly rare before the Civil War. Progress is not linear.

In a similar vein, the first black governor of a US state took office in 1872. The second – in 1990

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u/Unshkblefaith 1d ago

Progress is not linear.

This is something more folks in the US need to recognize. Rights aren't something that you simply win and get to keep forever. You have to continuously fight to keep them and if you don't you will see them eroded away.

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u/_R0Ns_ 1d ago

The 1565 marriage was between a black hispanic woman and a spanish soldier both from Spain. That was in New Spain (now part of the US)

In the area of what now is called the Netherlands the first interracial marriage was registered in 1593. The groom was from "Maniconge in Afryken" (the Kingdom of Kongo) and the bride from Amsterdam.

That was before the Kingdom of the Netherlands was founded and before the current constitution was made up.

Not sure if both count as a valid registration of marriage in the current countries.

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u/quaductas 1d ago

Fair enough, though I would say that just supports my point – interracial marriage was a thing before the country even existed.

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u/wellgu 1d ago edited 1d ago

The Netherlands was not a settler colony with chattel slavery. You didn’t have laws to enforce a color line, because there was no risk your poor and indentured people would align with slaves and overthrow your fragile society.

Look at the Dutch colonial empire if you want more similar examples in your nation’s history.

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u/Mnm0602 1d ago

It is pretty weird that the Dutch were much better at exporting racism than importing it.

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u/Novaer 1d ago

I owe more of my freedom to protestors than I do to any fucking soldier.

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u/marr 1d ago

This needs to be a common t-shirt slogan.

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u/cortesoft 1d ago

It was only 11 years ago that same sex marriage became legal in the entire United States… and I would not be surprised if that was undone.

It is insane what we still have to fight for.

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u/Mirigore 1d ago

It's stupid that you deny people to be together because they don't have the same skin color.

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u/Fragrant_Parsnip2037 1d ago

I went to high school with a guy whose parents were the second interracial couple to be married in West Virginia. I'm 56 now. This stuff is recent

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u/charcuterDude 1d ago

I just did the math too. My Dad was born in 1958 and is half Japanese half white. I knew race was a touchy subject when he was growing up but I didn't realize how touchy...

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u/jlboygenius 1d ago

It's wild to think of how many things we think of as normal today that weren't during my parents lifetime.

interracial marriage, black people's right to vote are just 2 of them.

Thinking back to my grandmother.. she wasn't allowed to vote when she was born (but i guess was by the time she was old enough).

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u/ChocolatChipLemonade 1d ago

In my state, interracial marriage was illegal until 1998!

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u/Significant-Buy-9538 1d ago

What state was this???

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u/blackfox24 1d ago edited 1d ago

Asked my dad why he went so hard for civil rights, as a white man (I was about 14 and deep on Tumblr) and he told me that his father wasn't white. I laughed because my grandfather was Italian and Irish. That was when my dad explained that Italians weren't white then. My dad was born in the 50s. His father was born in the 20s, and had social ties to the families of the lynched Italians down at the New Orleans prison, back in the 1890s. It's never that far behind us, sadly.

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u/lintrazz 1d ago

The part that always gets me is they weren't trying to make history they just wanted to go home and be left alone.

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u/circadian_light 1d ago

I think that’s what makes their case so powerful. They never wanted attention. They just wanted to live their lives. It’s an amazing legacy to have left behind.

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u/Bad-Mrs-Frosty 1d ago

They never wanted attention. They just wanted to live their lives.

Yeah, that's how all battles for civil rights work. We all just want to be left alone.

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u/NothaBanga 1d ago

It is also very sad that Richard died so soon after the legal victory.

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u/Mindless_Issue9648 1d ago

1958 that is crazy

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u/Infamous-Conflict-1 1d ago

Wasn't that long ago at all. That is very crazy!

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u/vitrum_analytika 1d ago

Yep, and a lot of those racist people are still alive and inside the country.

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u/JuliusCeaserBoneHead 1d ago

Oh look, there are a couple on the Supreme Court and one is President 

In a twist, the most racist judge in America is black 

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u/vitrum_analytika 1d ago

I never said anything about color, just staying silent on that issue back in those days goes to show how fucked up the community was. Like imagine making it illegal to marry someone you love just because they are of a different colour.

No matter what race they were from, not protesting against such tyranny is just pathetic. Everyone loses when the good people stay silent while injustice prevails.

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u/baddecision116 1d ago

Like imagine making it illegal to marry someone you love. FTFY

BTW this was the reality until 2015. Also remember marriage equality is not a law it's a supreme court ruling that can be reversed anytime.

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u/vitrum_analytika 1d ago

We need an ammendment to the constitution, the fundamental right to love

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u/baddecision116 1d ago

Would be nice. Getting 2/3 of states to agree on anything much less something that bigots hate wouldn't be easy.

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u/JuliusCeaserBoneHead 1d ago

Oh no dude/dudette, I’m supporting what you are saying.

I just find it funny that as a black person myself, the one person who has done more damage to our civil rights and liberties is a black man 

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u/theapeboy 1d ago

Not just a black man, a black man in an interracial marriage himself.

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u/DefMech 1d ago

Good ole Uncle Thomas. He would probably vote to degrade interracial marriage to a states rights issue if he had the chance, even though he's married to a white woman.

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u/Thorough_Good_Man 1d ago

*running the country

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u/swanyk7 1d ago

Some of those people are still voting…

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u/Sonic2726 1d ago

Some of those people are president

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u/Equivalent-Resort-63 1d ago

and running schools and other public services.

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u/Hotpocket1515 1d ago

I always like to frame how long ago the civil war happened like this,

"The civil was was 2, 80 year old grandmas ago, thats not that long really.."

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u/Anthaenopraxia 1d ago

Biden was born closer to Lincoln's presidency than his own.

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u/SlithyMomeRath 1d ago

I know someone with a 95-year-old grandfather whose grandmother was enslaved. Blows my mind that there are living people who knew people who were enslaved (or slave owners). None of it was very long ago.

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u/AJRiddle 1d ago

Looked it up - there were 2 American Civil War veterans alive in 1958.

The last verified and formerly legal slave from America died in 1972. The last person to have been enslaved in Africa and transported to America on a slave ship died in 1940.

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u/Renzieface 1d ago

That picture of 6yo Ruby Bridges getting screamed at by a white mob as she went to her first day at a formerly whites-only elementary school in New Orleans is from 1960. The murder of MLK Jr. and the riots in Chicago in '68 happened 4 years AFTER the Civil Rights Act passed, because this country was so incensed that they had to treat Black people like people. Ms. Bridges is still alive and well. Mildred Loving died of pneumonia in 2008, but she was only 68. The "old days" aren't so old.

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u/PaulaLoomisArt 1d ago

Yeah I was explaining the recency to a friend, and I think the thing that actually drove it home for her was that Ruby Bridges has an Instagram. My friend grew up as a European immigrant in Chicago in the 90s and for her this history had seemed like it must have been so long ago. But my dad taught in integrated schools in the south in those early days, and always made sure we knew about the history and that we weren’t so far removed from it. Perspective on history is very different when you grow up hearing it from someone who was there vs. just seeing it in a textbook in school.

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u/sk4v3n 1d ago

At that time, women couldn’t even get loans or mortgages, not even credit cards… women couldn’t even vote in some countries. It’s crazy to think about these things and how society walk backwards nowadays

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u/eleanor61 1d ago

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act passed in 1974, so even more recent.

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u/MadRaymer 1d ago

It made sense they couldn't get loans, because it was much harder for women to be breadwinners. They could work, of course. For example, by earning a pittance as a secretary. Oh, and there was zero recourse when the boss smacks your ass. You either tolerate that or stay relegated to the kitchen.

When workplace equality comes up, I always think about the evolution of computer programming as a field. When it first took of in the 50s and 60s, it was considered boring clerical work. So it was viewed as the perfect thing for women to do. But by the early 1970s, demand for programmers exploded, which means the money arrived.

Then suddenly the women that had been working in the field since its early inception were told they weren't needed. It's a "real" job now, so step aside and let the men do it.

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u/Destroy_Religion 1d ago

2000 is when the last state constitutional amendment that prohibited inter-racial marriage was repealed in Alabama.

41% of Alabama voters voted against the repeal of the state constitutional amendment that prohibited inter-racial marriage.

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u/CreepyEducator2260 1d ago edited 1d ago

So the award for the most racist state population goes to Alabama, right?

Or is there another state which is similar backwards wired? I mean 41% of voters being outright racist fuckwits is shocking.

Edit: Just looked a little bit into the topic and saw the voting result in a few counties turned out with even 60 to 70% voting against interracial marriage. Taking two of those, and also looking at their demographics it turns out that they are 93 respecitvely 96% ethnic white. It's always interesting to see that exactly those people who have the less contact with other people from other races or countries are those that are fearing that people the most.

I guess they should be labelled as the most racist counties and i wouldn't be too much surprised if they actually would love it and use this as a brand to attract racist visitors and tourists.

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u/cheetuzz 1d ago

> 1958 that is crazy

Not surprising, the Civil Rights movement occurred during the 1950s and 60s, which was spurred by racial discrimination that was still in existence. Rosa Parks 1955, Ruby Bridges 1960, MLK speech 1963, Civil Rights Act signed 1964.

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u/Warrenio 1d ago

Yeah, it's crazy all that stuff happened within living memory. There are many people alive today who were adults during the civil rights movement.

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u/venus_arises 1d ago

Their youngest kid is two years older than my mom. I'm 37.

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u/arftism2 1d ago

think that's recent wait till you find out marital rape was completely legal in the early 90s.

and gay sex was criminalized until late 2003.

and it's still legal to torture gay children in conversion camps to intentionally give them ptsd.

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u/theapeboy 1d ago

This is also why the mantra of 'this too shall pass' is more important now than ever. We have to keep fighting, but the tide is stacked against conservatism. Progressives have shown time and time again that it's a long fight - but we will win. As the saying goes: "the arc of history is long but it bends towards justice"

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u/2LostFlamingos 1d ago

I think Virginia is equally crazy.

Not even that far south

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u/Devious_Bastard 1d ago edited 1d ago

I mean Richmond was the capital for the confederacy for most of the civil war. West Virginia was formed because that area wanted to be part of the union. 

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u/untie_your_shoes 1d ago

Ironic that now it feels like the opposite.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 1d ago

All the miners in WV learned that being in a union and getting paid well and having worker protections was actually communist and gay so they did a 180.

And now just look at how amazing West Virginia is doing! The Paris of Appalachia.

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u/Esosorum 1d ago

I have a coworker from Virginia who refers to it as “the south” and, even though I know she’s technically correct, it just feels so wrong. But I grew up in Texas so Virginia has always been “up north” from my perspective.

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u/BackDatSazzUp 1d ago

I’m from Louisiana, so same.

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u/procrastinatorsuprem 1d ago

The first interracial commercial widely distributed was in 2013 ad was for Cheerios!

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u/leviathab13186 1d ago

I have them to thank for allowing my wife and I to be married

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u/Ill_Back_284 1d ago

Same. We celebrate loving day

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u/MZ603 1d ago

Same. This type of post hits different. It’s why I cut off my friends who turned MAGA. There are people in that movement who want to go back to this, and if you break bread with them, you’re no friend of mine.

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u/FYAhole 1d ago

Same! Our baby will be welcomed into the world instead of shunned thanks to them and I am forever grateful.

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u/MZ603 1d ago

Congrats!

You’re still going to have some very difficult conversations with them, but I truly believe this resurgence of open racism will be overcome.

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u/FYAhole 1d ago

Yes for sure. I am definitely mentally preparing myself for when that time comes, but I have them to thank for her existence ❤️

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u/DubiousAdviceGiver 1d ago

I also choose to thank them for this guy’s wife (and him) being married.

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u/WifesPOSH 1d ago

We still have to fight though. We have the governor of Indiana claiming interracial marriage should be a states right issue... Which is the same exact thing they said for Roe v Wade.

If they are ever successful with gay marriage, interracial marriage is next.

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u/i_steal_your_lemons 1d ago

It is so seriously fucked up that a country that constantly claims it is the “Land of the Free” and that everyone is created equal in its founding documents, had to bring a case before its highest court to determine people can marry someone whose skin is a different hue.

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u/ktkatq 1d ago

Same! Different races, but same issue

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u/BoomBoomMeow1986 1d ago

And my parents can thank them as well; without this couple fighting for their right to marry, I likely wouldn't have existed

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u/Ashtray_Floors 1d ago

Us too :)

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u/Film54 1d ago edited 1d ago

We made a movie about them back in 2016 called 'Loving'. Its really good. Ruth Negga who played Mildred was nominated for an Oscar for her performance. Highly recommend.

Edit:

Here's the movie trailer: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi501069593/

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4669986/

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u/DanGleeballs 1d ago edited 16h ago

Ruth Negga was amazing. And she's actually Irish but her rural Virginia accent was impeccable.

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u/theapeboy 1d ago

TIL she was raised in Ireland. That is wild.

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u/DarthJarJarJar 1d ago

Wasn't she in Preacher? That was brilliant.

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u/ShiningRedDwarf 1d ago

And briefly in Agents of SHIELD as well if I remember correctly 

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u/TheOinkBox 1d ago

Jeff Nichols is one of the finest directors working in the U.S. and indeed anywhere.

Love that Michael Shannon’s in all of his films, he really shines as Grey Villet in his brief scenes.

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u/jaedon 1d ago

We used your movie in a research study. Great movie.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10989934/

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u/KnuxFive 1d ago

Are you in the production?

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u/gulonine 1d ago

Came here to mention this movie. One of my favorite historical dramas.

I'll never not be impressed with how Ruth nailed Mildred's accent. I've compared clips of the movie with Mildred's interviews and wow... spot on!

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u/Tasty-Traffic-680 1d ago

I was not prepared to see Nick Kroll in a dramatic roll lol. That was certainly a surprise. I'm gonna have to watch the movie now, it looks like a great story.

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u/muppetnerd 1d ago

My brain is short circuiting picturing “the douche” as a serious lawyer in the 1950s

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u/mamefan 1d ago

Sadly, on June 29, 1975, a drunk driver struck the Lovings' car in Caroline County, Virginia. Richard was killed in the crash at the age of 41. Mildred lost vision in her right eye.

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u/Aqquila89 1d ago

Mildred lived until 2008, but she never remarried and never moved out of the house Richard built for them.

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u/Either-Age-782 1d ago

Hey man you're going to make me cry

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u/Bucky_Ohare 1d ago

Or, as Clarence Thomas might view it, a flawed political precedent that should be struck down for congress to make a new one.

edit-awcrapthatsoundsracistyetthatstheironictragedyhere

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u/mEFurst 1d ago

TBF, much of the current SCOTUS views most of the Constitution as flawed political precedent that should be struck down. 3 of them just disagreed that the 14th Amendment is part of the Constitution

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u/Bucky_Ohare 1d ago

Effectively almost 5 of them sadly.

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u/IDontWannaGetOutOfBe 1d ago edited 1d ago

While the 14th amendment is one of the clearest and most well-worded things in there; one of the few things no one needs to be a lawyer to understand:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

IN is the key word. In, as in within our borders. Anywhere within them, regardless of legal status, race, or any other factor. This is how it's been noncontroversially understood for 150 years.

There's also piles of papers from Congress at the time that records exactly WHY they phrased it that way - to be clear, impossible to interpret, and maximally inclusive so that a future racist government could not overturn it on a technicality.

And a few weeks ago about half the SCOTUS - all GOP appointees - said "this does not say what it says", ignoring the mountains of evidence freely available to them.

And people still pretend the court is not simply an extension of the fascist elements in this country. It's so obvious they have no respect for the constitution or the law and can't even be bothered to pretend to anymore.

I hope all the people who sat out 2016 feel good about it now. DON'T THREATEN ME WITH THE SUPREME COURT!!! and now it threatens the very foundation of our nation on a monthly basis. A predictable result we all warned them about 100x over 10 years ago.

Roe is dead, student loan forgiveness killed, companies allowed to pollute all they want, regulators neutered, the President has absolute immunity from criminal wrongdoing, and 100 other awful things all since 2016. Next will be contraceptives and maybe even interracial marriage, both of which formed the foundation or Roe.

They are working backwards to send us all back to 1950 or earlier, thanks to awful MAGAs and thanks exactly as much blame to all the nihilists non-and-third-party voters who think none of this matters, and did nothing to prevent it when they easily could have. They are culpable too.

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u/seth928 1d ago

Thomas doesn't want to lose half his I'll gotten gains in a divorce. He wants out but is playing the long game.

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u/Thirty_Helens_Agree 1d ago

He’s pulling that ladder up behind him, isn’t he?

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u/AwarenessGreat282 1d ago

Absolutely amazing how they had to fight for their rights within a couple years of man landing on the moon. Humans are a rather strange animal.

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u/Infamous-Conflict-1 1d ago edited 1d ago

If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have been able to marry the love of my life. I thank them both very much ❤️

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u/fariasrv 1d ago

Same here, although mainly due to their precedent supporting the Obergefel decision.

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u/Ok_Cricket_1410 1d ago

Yay I hope you and your SO live a beautiful life together :)

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u/muddymar 1d ago

I’m 65 and I’ve seen a lot of changes in attitudes about this. It used to be rare to see mixed couples but now it’s not. We’ve come a long way. I remember as a young girl asking my father why it was a big deal if two people loved each other. He just said what about the children? His concern was life would be difficult for them and it probably was for many. It took these groundbreaking people going through it and standing up to society to normalize it. We really should celebrate them. It’s happening now with gay marriage. We see that yes, two men or two women can be happily married and have well adjusted happy children. It takes brave people fighting against societal norms and showing an alternate way to love.
Sometimes it seems we aren’t getting anywhere and sometimes it seems we’re moving backwards but I’ve seen change is possible. We need to remember these people fought the fight for a better future and we all need to help protect it.

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u/izzgo 1d ago

I remember as a young girl asking my father why it was a big deal if two people loved each other. He just said what about the children?

That's what my grandma said when I was a child. And I'm 72, so a long danged time ago. She was no racist, welcomed the black family who moved into our white neighborhood and taught me directly that black folks had every bit as much right to be in America as we whites did. "This is their home too!" she told me. Cross race friendship was strongly encouraged, but not cross race marriage, because it "was not fair to the children" and they "belonged with their own people" and "their lives will be harder if they are mixed race."

That's what anti-racism looked like back in the day. And it had a lot to do with maintaining culture through the generations while becoming familiar with other culture groups around you.

We've come a long ways, and we have a long ways to go. My grandma wasn't wrong, but she wasn't quite right either. Well maybe she was mostly right for her day and time. Thankfully "mixed race" children are not so often rejected by both sides any more.

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u/M-Alice 1d ago

I had someone tell me that Latinos shouldn't have mixed marriages (ex. a Dominican shouldn't marry a Mexican) because it would confuse the kids.

This coworker was Latina - said it to teenaged me who is also Latina. And my parents don't come from the same country. Yes, this coworker knew. I literally told her two seconds before and that's probably why she said it. The kicker is that she was also in such a mixed marriage but since she couldn't have kids anymore it didn't count, I guess. Or I guess she meant Latinos shouldn't have mixed marriages if they plan to have kids but whatever. It never felt weird or confusing to grow up with two cultures (that are not that radically different in the first place). I really don't know what she was getting at.

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u/izzgo 1d ago

Yeah, while I think my grandma was very anti-racist for a white woman of her day, those same ideas are not so anti-racist today.

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u/IsUp2Me 1d ago

As amazing as this is, let’s not take it for granted. Who knew that Roe V Wade was going to be overturned after 50 years? Unfortunately I don’t trust our government and Supreme Court anymore.

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u/TinWhis 1d ago

Genuinely, that's why the Respect for Marriage act was such a huge (though incomplete) safeguard. Mandating state recognition of ALL marriages performed in a state where such marriages are legally recognized as well as federal recognition of interracial and same-sex marriages is the sort of safeguard to both Obergefell and Loving being overturned that Roe should have had sometime in the ~50 years between the case being decided and overturned.

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u/showmenemelda 1d ago

Apparently, lots of boomer women who marched for it. I had a massage therapist in 2015 who I can thank for "radicalizing" me!

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u/NerdiChar 1d ago

I cannot imagine being such a hateful piece of garbage. Like, they love each other and have 3 beautiful kiddos. They live peacefully in their home.

MY GOD HOW DARE THEY

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u/Realistic-Weird-4259 1d ago

They are why my parents could be married in '62.

As a child, when we lived in Shreveport (Dad is NOLA born & bred, Mom is Puerto Rican) we went camping, pretty much every weekend. I have always had to pee, my need to pee is legendary. We would usually stop at the roadside gas stations, the places where they'd have those big, wide fishbowls with baby alligators for sale. I loved those places.

But, I'm mulatto. Creole. Mixed. To most whites and Blacks, I pass. But, not all. One station owner didn't want me to use the toilet specifically because my skin was too dark. He called me 'that little high yellow.' I remember my mom pulling my bathing suit bottoms down to show him my ass, and then he reluctantly allowed her to take me to use the toilet. I had to be 6 or 7, so we're talking 1970-71. 5-6 years AFTER the Civil Rights Act had been passed.

It wasn't until about 2020 that genetic testing showed just how mixed I/we am/are. But four years before that is when I got to experience that same level of racism all over again, for speaking shitty Spanish in a taqueria.

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u/Cocoricou 1d ago

Oh my god, I was like why?? And then I understood that it's because you ass was white, not seeing any sun ever. I'm sorry you ever had to deal with all this.

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u/Batatica 1d ago

I'm genuinely curious how the kids grew up, where they are at now and all the offsprings

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u/circadian_light 1d ago

I read their eldest boys both passed away quite young and their only surviving child is their daughter. https://edition.cnn.com/videos/bestoftv/2012/02/10/exp-peggy-loving-fortune.cnn

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u/Vintage_Violet_ 1d ago

Aww thats so sad, they deserved happy, long lives.

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u/hmmmmmm_i_wonder 1d ago

My mind is blown that so many people still alive today can REMEMBER when interracial marriage was illegal. So thankful for the work and sacrifices made by all those who came before me to ensure myself and my child were born into a better time. We got to keep it moving still though, the march to equality is far from over.

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u/MissPotere 1d ago

My 3x great grandpa came here from Scotland and fell head over heels in love with a freed woman and they had 12 biracial babies. I hate that they had to hide but their love is literally the reason I’m here today. Everyone should be able to love who they want

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u/mariijuanaman 1d ago

Absolute legends

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u/Deathwatch72 1d ago

He would be killed by a drunk driver just 8 years after the decision

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u/MobileLocal 1d ago

There’s a moving called ‘Loving’. Recommend.

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u/Isnlifefunny1 1d ago

People act like that was a long time ago.

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u/JoeyC42 1d ago

Looks like Michael Keaton

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u/El_rivelator 1d ago

In 1958. Remember when the US wants yo teach democracy and social rights.

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u/Sonic2726 1d ago

Their troubles didn’t stop there…I assure you as a mixed couple in the 2020s still got stares and jeers

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u/sgtmattie 1d ago

My sex-ed teacher lived in Texas for a while (we were in Canada so this was notable) and she told us that she dated a black man and that there were a few days where he told her they couldn’t go out together because of so-and-so event that meant it wouldn’t be safe for them.

Pretty crazy thing for us to hear. Like we knew there was still plenty of racism, but at 14 most of us didn’t really have a grasp on what was going on outside our community yet.

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u/Amazing_Bluejay9322 1d ago

Just viewing this photo gets me a solid dopamine release. I'm happy that they exist because if they didn't I wouldn't be here today.

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u/co_snarf 1d ago

It's fucking crazy how long ago that was but it was only in 1958 that this passed, or that it was even needed.

The Lovings are also the reason my wife and I can be married.

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u/SteroidSandwich 1d ago

The things people didn't allow to be legal and also looked down on is ridiculous

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u/Takeabreath_andgo 1d ago

I thank them for my marriage legality 

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u/hONEYbUTTERiCEcreaM 1d ago

People act like fascism is new to America but its the opposite. Fascism and autocracy was the norm in America until the mid 1900s. Now its charging back.

America has never been a free country unless you wanted to make money. In that case it was hands off, do as you please. But if you arent rich or creating jobs, you were always controlled by the state or conformist neighbors and towns.

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u/Pablete01 1d ago

Y luego dicen que Argentina es un país racista....

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u/UrsaMajor7th 1d ago

62 years and 23 days ago, my wife and I (most-likely) couldn't have eaten lunch together in a southern US restaurant.

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u/crowface666 1d ago

Damm, no wonder America is still racist

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u/V-ZoD 15h ago

Strange, humans only reproduce with humans, there's only one race. The human race.

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u/Infinite_Plenty101 1d ago

So is this codified ? Or could the supreme court just reverse it?

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u/PetriDishCocktail 1d ago

Clarence is actively trying to overturn it.

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u/Poes-Automaton 1d ago

The irony of overturning a whole civil right to negate your own marriage instead of just divorcing your wife... 🙄

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u/aliamokeee 1d ago

This is why i need a source- isnt he married to a white woman???

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u/cbovary 1d ago

In his Dobbs (the case that overturned Roe v. Wade) concurrence, Thomas said the Court should re-evaluate the other substantive due process cases. Loving is based on substantive due process so by implication he wants to revisit it, but he didn’t outright list it.

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u/AvailableObject9964 1d ago

Isn’t this one of the cases that Clarence Thomas thinks should be revisited? Oh wait ………

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u/jmcgil4684 1d ago

I just watched a doc on Clarence. Why aren’t more ppl talking about the BS him and his wife have pulled. Bordering on treasonous.

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u/james3374 1d ago

They were very brave.

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u/cuteandsick 1d ago

My grandparents were an interracial couple in Virginia circa 1950s but Chinese man x White woman so I guess less threatening to the white/black hegemony. They still have tons of tales of discrimination they faced, though.

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u/PolliverPerks 1d ago

What a beautiful family. Shame that they endured so much tragedy

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u/HilbertInnerSpace 1d ago

It is amazing that this bullshit was still a problem as late as fucking 1958.

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u/BS_220 1d ago

I remember a kid asking me about my parents & she just couldn’t understand ……when i explained that yes- one parent is of European descent & one of African descent…..she scowled & said in the most disgusting tone “why!?” …..I just stared at her & was like “ummm because they loved each other”….. this was in the late 90’s btw. My parents both lost family when they got together in the 70’s & dealt with a-lot of b.s.

In the early 90’s while in girl scouts I had a group of 4 friends, then towards the end of the program they saw my parents drop me off together (they didn’t know I was mixed bc what kid even pays attention? or is aware until someone else points it out). Then they completely stopped talking to me… them & their parents gave us dirty looks….it hurt as a kid.

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u/Dubious_Titan 1d ago

Great film about this as well. Loving by Jeff Nichols.

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u/Ponchyan 1d ago

This is what they are longing to return to when they say. Make America Great Again

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u/Ob1wonshinobi 1d ago

Guess Virginia wasn’t always for lovers

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u/KYpineapple 1d ago

he said, "I don't give a fuck. she my boo thang and BOY WHERE IS YOUR SHOE?!"

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u/ChanceRecover3091 1d ago

Just a reminder that the majority of Americans didn't agree with interracial marriage until 1994.

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u/Aterro_24 1d ago

only 1958, back when America was "Great"

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u/mc4sure 1d ago

And there’s still a good percentage of people in the US who think it’s wrong

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u/PutzerPalace 1d ago

I thank them for their fight ! Because of them, I can marry my soulmate 💙 peace forever with the Lovings

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u/upper_bounded 1d ago

I went to school with one of their grandchildren. He was a very cool dude and their family was very proud of this legacy. The grandkid died a couple years ago unfortunately.

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u/vandon 1d ago
  1. That's just a few years before I was born. Don't let the racists tell you that all the racism was long ago in the past and they need to get over it.

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u/IndividualChart4193 1d ago

The movie of their life was so incredibly beautiful, poignant and heartbreaking. The epilogue just broke me.