Since June is a popular month for weddings, it’s logical to review what was observed on the 12th: “National Loving Day.” 

And since you may have missed it, here’s a compelling fact about this low-profile holiday: It was named for a genuine Loving couple – Richard and Mildred Loving.

The irony about “National Loving Day,” which has been around since 2004, is that it sprang from hate.

It was nearly 65 years ago – at 2 a.m. on July 11, 1958 – police awoke the Lovings in their marital bed and arrested them. 

The crime, and it was a crime then in Virginia and 24 other states, was their marriage.

The charge: “Cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth.”

Richard, a white construction worker, and Mildred, of Black and Native American descent, had wed five weeks before in Washington, D.C., where the ceremony was legal. They returned to Virginia assuming the marriage would stand, but the state’s 1924 Racial Integrity Act made them criminals even though they had married elsewhere.

They pled guilty and were sentenced to a year in prison, but avoided jail time by agreeing to leave the state and to stay away for 25 years.

They moved to Washington, where they chafed over their inability to visit family in Virginia, and in 1963 wrote of their plight to U.S. Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy.

He referred the case to the American Civil Liberties Union, which began a long struggle to get the law thrown out.

It was an uphill battle against ingrained bigotry. Early on, a Virginia U.S. District Court judge upheld the statute, writing: “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.”

The case eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which on June 12, 1967, struck down the Virginia law in a unanimous decision that also rendered moot similar laws in 15 other states. Rhode Island had rubbed its law off the books in 1881. 

The high court ruled the statute unconstitutional, asserting its only purpose was “invidious racial discrimination” designed to maintain white supremacy. 

Writing the official opinion for his court, Chief Justice Earl Warren noted, “The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness…” 

So that’s the background of Loving Day, the idea for which came from Ken Tanabe, a teacher at the Parsons School of Design in New York’s Greenwich Village. Of mixed racial background himself, he had made the Lovings the subject of his graduate thesis when he was a student at Parsons.

Though mostly unofficial, “National Loving Day” observances are said to include social gatherings, community events, panel discussions, and cultural performances.

And because of what it signifies, some people even choose that date as their wedding day.

The two who started it all are no longer with us. Richard Loving was killed in a 1975 a car crash, and Mildred died of pneumonia in 2008. The couple had three children, eight grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren.

As for how she viewed the court’s ruling, on its 40th anniversary in 2007, Mildred wrote: “… 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.”

Gerry Goldstein (gerryg76@verizon.net), a frequent contributor, is a retired Providence Journal editor and columnist.