Academic

Loving v. Virginia: June 12, 1967

By Kevin Maillard

Today, June 12, is the 42nd year after the Loving v. Virginia case, which ruled as unconstitutional Virginia's anti-miscegenation laws.  The plaintiffs, Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter, lifelong acquaintances and residents of Central Point, VA, were jailed for cohabitating as a white man and a black woman in Virginia, in violation of the Racial Integrity Act.  As a white man and a woman of color, Virginia refused to countenance the legality of their relationship.

I always love teaching this case in Family Law, because most students initially view the case as a relic of the civil rights era.  They assume that in contemporary society, people are free to make their own choices, without the social and legal barriers to cross-racial intimacy.  Students of course cite the obvious example of Barack Obama, along with other assorted notables of Tiger Woods, Mariah Carey and the "tons" of people that adopt children transracially.  And not just students, but many others would agree similarly.

But how far have we really come?  Only in 2000 did Alabama finally repeal its antimiscegenation law, and the vast, vast, vast majority of couples, families, people--along with their artistic representations--are monoracial.  Most families and communities remain "segregated." There are no summer blockbusters with Will Smith and Reese Witherspoon as romantic leads.  Interracial children born "out of wedlock" are nails on the coffin for public officials.  And same sex marriage continues to challenge the collective conception of what it means to be a family.

Where does this leave us today?  Prof. Rose Villazor and I are editors of Loving in a Post-Racial World: Rethinking Race, Sex, and Marriage (Cambridge Univ. Press, forthcoming 2010).  Our book analyzes ongoing barriers to marriage and family formation, using Loving to examine the ways that law and society have defined equality in the context of marital and family unions.  So the issue is very much alive!

Image: Jose dé Alcibár, De Español y Negra, Mulato. ca. 1760-1770.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on June 12, 2009 (boomark / email).