The Lovings and the Right to Marry

In the middle of the twentieth century, state laws across much of the United States dictated who people could love, marry, and build a life with. In Virginia, a measure called the Racial Integrity Act of 1924 made it a crime for a white person to marry anyone who was not considered white. More than a dozen other states had similar laws, often called anti-miscegenation statutes. These measures were designed to preserve racial segregation and maintain a strict social hierarchy. For everyday citizens, however, these legal codes reached directly into their personal lives and homes.

Two people who challenged this system were Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving. They grew up in Caroline County, Virginia, in a small, tight-knit rural community called Central Point. Unlike many other parts of the American South during the era of Jim Crow segregation, Central Point was an area where Black, white, and Native American families lived alongside one another, worked together, and formed lasting friendships. Mildred identified as having both African American and Rappahannock Native American ancestry, while Richard was white. The two fell in love as teenagers and decided to get married.