Mildred Loving Passes Away

Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend at 5:36 AM on May 6, 2008.

Those of us eagerly waiting for the day when same-sex marriage is finally legalized across the land owe a debt of gratitude to Mildred Loving, whose 1967 case (Loving v. Virginia) resulted in a landmark Supreme Court decision that broke down a major social and legal barrier - interracial marriage.

Mildred Loving, a black woman whose challenge to Virginia's ban on interracial marriage led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling striking down such laws nationwide, has died, her daughter said Monday.

Peggy Fortune said Loving, 68, died Friday at her home in rural Milford. She did not disclose the cause of death.

...Richard Loving died in 1975 in a car accident that also injured his wife.

In a rare interview with The Associated Press last June, Loving said she wasn't trying to change history - she was just a girl who once fell in love with a boy.

"It wasn't my doing," Loving said. "It was God's work."

You'll recall that I asked U.S. Senate candidate Kay Hagan about Loving v. Virginia and the conundrum it presents when considering marriage equality for lesbian and gay couples:

During a Feb. 25 forum at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, you conveyed to attendees that the definition of marriage should be left up to state law. - How is that reconciled with 1967's Loving v. Virginia, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that invalidated state bans on interracial marriages? Should that have been left a state matter?

I never did receive a response to this specific question.

As you may also recall, neither Dem gubernatorial candidate (Moore, Perdue) bothered to respond in their live blogs to questions about a potential marriage amendment in this state, the legality of which will eventually end up before SCOTUS because of a patchwork of unequal laws, similar to the anti-miscegenation laws prior to 1967's ruling.