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A landmark civil rights decision of the U.S Supreme Court which shut down all state laws that banned interracial marriage. The decision is remembered every year on Loving Day.

Participants in the case
The participants in this case were Richard and Mildred Loving. A white man and black women whose marriage was regarded as illegal according to the Virginia state law.

Background of the case
The couple married in Washington, DC in 1967. They were charged with unlawful cohabitation and jailed when they returned to their home state in 1958. They left Virginia and went to live with relatives in Washington, DC. They were arrested for traveling together when they returned to visit family 5 years later. Mildred wrote to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy for help. The couple was mentioned to the ACLU, which represented them in the landmark Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia.

Problems that led to the case
Richard and Mildred were a different colored couple, so when they married, they were accused of breaking the law. Interracial marriage was illegal in Virginia back at that time.

Arguments of the plaintiff
Mildred argued that, "These are not health or and welfare laws. These are slavery laws, pure and simple.

Arguments of the defendant
The Supreme Court announced its ruling in this case on June 12, 1967. In an unanimous decision, the justices found that Virginia's interracial marriage law violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

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Why it Went to Supreme Court
Bans on inter racial marriage is a violation of the equal protection clause of the U.S constitution.
Why the Court agreed to Hear it
The Supreme court began to rule on equal protection matters as they applied to interracial marriage and sexual relations.
Constitutional question raised by the participants
The question that was raised, was if the laws against interracial marriage were unconstitutional or not. Also, people wondered if the laws were fair or unfair.

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What was the court's decision and why did they decide this way
Their decision was followed by an increase in interracial marriages.

Was there a dissenting and/or concurring opinion to the majority
The Loving Dissent was written almost half a century after Chief Justice issued his unanimous Loving opinion.

What was the actual vote count
The Supreme Court Justices made a unanimous vote(9-0) that Virginia's law on interracial marriage was a violation of the 14th amendment of the constitution.

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The court ruled that state bans on interracial marriage were unconstitutional. The supreme court also ended prohibitions on interracial marriage and dealt a major blow to segregation. Richard and Mildred left behind a legacy of love for America. A love that triumphs over hate. There is now a day named after all of this. Multiculturalism it celebrated that day. Multiculturalism should be celebrated everyday. We think that the case was fairly settled because a couple should not be separated by their race.

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www.oyez.org/cases/1966/395.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-history-behind-loving-v.-virginia

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2589280

https://www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-movement/loving-v-virginia

https://www.aclu.org/issues/racial-justice/loving

https://www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-movement/loving-v-virginia