R.I.P. Mildred Loving

Sandra Rose May 7, 2008

Mildred Loving, a woman of color whose challenge to Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage led to a landmark decision by the Supreme Court, has died. Mildred passed away on Monday May 2, 2008 at her home in rural Milford, her daughter said Monday. She was 68.

Loving and her white husband, Richard, changed history in 1967 when the Supreme Court upheld their right to marry lifting the race mixing ban in 17 states.

Loving and her husband’s courageous action gave rise to a proliferation in mixed marriages that forever changed the racial composition of black people in America.

“It wasn’t my doing,” Loving said. “It was God’s work.”

“I want (people) to remember her as being strong and brave yet humble — and believed in love,” Peggy Fortune told The Associated Press.

mizzdallas

I only knew about Mr and Mrs Loving through the Made to Tv Movie on Lifetime starring Lela Rochon “Mr. & Mrs. Loving, thats really sad how they were treated because they were in-love with each other. Of course I cried most of Lifetime movies R.I.P to both.
mizzdallas

“Most of the Lifetime movies I cry.” (thats what I meant to type)
prynsexxx

I thought they had a movie called “Love Story” I could be wrong. Whatever the movie was I fell asleep on it.

She was 68? I thought she was older than that. That’s sorta kinda young.
Anna

@prynsexxx.
She was 68? I thought she was older than that. That’s sorta kinda young.

That is young, also goes to show that it was not that long ago that interracial marriage was against the law.
http://notenoughrealmen.blogspot.com 2thick4u

R.I.P., she made history.

The Lifetime Movie was a great pictorial of the events that happened in the 60’s.
JOMINE

R.I.P. Mrs.Loving
http://www.myspace.com/millyly milly

RIP
MistaO

Man whatever! Most of yall don’t even know that this “man” was a pedofile and started “seeing” this woman when she was ELEVEN years old!!! And let’s be terribly realistic here, back then there was nothing new about a white man taking “liberties” with a Black woman OR child! Case in point. Again, there was noting of note about a white man doing a black woman and everybody playing like this was so groundbreaking and whatnot. Please.
And you all, just like most gullible blacks, fell for the media portrayal of this as some love story. Just ask yourself this, had this been a Black man running up in some 11 year old white girl, would all of you be so nostalgic and giddy over the story? Bet not.
MistaO

Furthermore, you can see the angle that all this is viewed through the prism of Blackness even through the person who wrote this article. The statement that this “forever changed the racial composition of black people in America” makes it only germane to Black people. What about changing the racial composition of whites? Especially if you talking a black/white union!?! Plus I bet the good ole supreme court wouln’t have repealed nothing if this was a WW trying to marry a BM, hell they both would have been lynched…
Seeing people highlight crap like this bugs me, when there are soooo many other stories of Black people and our struggle that are much more deserving of exposure than me loves my massa stories like this one, whatever…
miamore73

Wow MistaO okay I can see your point. I’m not familiar with this story but weren’t there alot of Love Stories in the 50s and 60s that involved under age girls of all races and over age men of all races. What about Elvis and Pricilla she wasn’t 11 but wasn’t she like 13.

Not to make excuses for it (because if it were my child there would be a shotgun involved) but those were different times. IMO a time where we were struggling for acceptance and our rights. Our rights to do what we wanted, how we wanted and to respected for it as black people.
Tangela

Ummm….MistaO, I hate to break it to you, but he wasn’t having sex with her when she was 11. That’s when they met: in the cotton fields. Their relationship did get sexual while Mildred was in her mid-teens, but that is nothing new now or then. I personally know her granchildren and you obviously know nothing of this love, or this family.
heart2heart

MistaO, I do agree had this story been about a white little girl messing with a 17 year old black man, he would’ve been lynched. At the same time, this was a love story and it’s because of them going be allowed to marry, made it possible for black men like Tiger Woods and maybe even you to mingle and marry a white woman without the law being on your back. Wow, ain’t that something! lol Tiger and all of the confused brothas actually have a black woman to feel grateful towards.

May she rest in peace.
https://www.sandrarose.com Sandra Rose

@ heart2heart:
My thoughts exactly. I’ve always wondered what caused the proliferation of biracial kids in the 60s and 70s. When I was a kid I don’t remember seeing biracial kids like you do now. Now it all becomes clear.
bklynsjm123

Wow I wonder how she died, she was so young.
PAHairston

Truth be told, back in those “good ole days”, the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and well into the 60s, white folks could do anything, and I mean ANYTHING, to black folks and get away with it. Period. I have a very light, damn near white girlfriend who was asked by a white co-worker if someone in her family had married a white person, her being so fair and all, you know, real light-skinneded My friend said no, that she was the product of a “white masser.” This white woman had a nerve to comment: You don’t actually believe this do you? Deliberately dismissive, that’s what most white Americans are when it comes to race, race relations and the truth: deliberately dismissive. One last thought. When will the color of ones skin not matter in America? If our REAL ENEMIES ever succeed in dropping that nuclear bomb on this great country, the color of ones skin finally won’t matter ’cause we won’t have any. As always, I leave you in peace.

R.I.P. Mildred Loving

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