The Loving Story (2011)

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The Loving Story was released on April 15, 2011, in the USA. The American film was produced by Augusta Films and The National Endowment for the Humanities. The film was written by Nancy Buirski and Susie Ruth Power and directed by Nancy Buirski. The movie was displaying how Richard and Mildred Loving changed the interracial marriage policy in the USA[1].

Plot

Mildred and Richard Loving[2].

In 1958, Richard Loving, a white man from Virginia, married Mildred, a native and African American woman in Washington, D.C. They have to marry in Washington, D.C because it is prohibited to do an interracial marriage in Virginia. Still, they went back to Virginia and live as a family in Central Point, Virginia. One night, the local sheriff, who is racist, assaulted their house and arrested both of them for being an interracial couple in Virginia. The Lovings are imprisoned for a year, and later on, they were dismissed from Virginia if they want to live as a legal interracial couple. They moved to Washington and lived for several years. As Mildred was not live happily in the city and afraid of the children would grow in a bad neighborhood, they decided to fight for their rights and challenge the Supreme Court with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Bernard S. Cohen and Philip J. Hirschkop, who are attorneys from ACLU decided to back them up in the court and created a strategy with the Lovings. Their hard work finally paid off after nine years of struggle in the court and in the end, the Supreme Court ended the prohibition of interracial marriage across the USA forever[3].

Black Empowerment

Despite the struggle they face, they face them with courage. They were eager to handle the situation as they want to live as a legal interracial couple in the country. They sent a letter for legal advice to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. They went to court dates in Richmond with Bernard S. Cohen and Philip J. Hirschkop to fight for their rights to live as a legal interracial couple in Virginia. While they seemed to be awkward in the public, they would go and talk to the media especially Mildred since they believe that everyone should have the right to live happily no matter what race they have, wherever they want in the country. Their effort has changed policy and Supreme Court decided to abolish Virginia's Racial Integrity Act and the same policy across the country. Both of them have become an inspiration in fighting for the civil rights love story[4].

Controversy

In the 1950s, Virginia's Racial Integrity Act prohibited interracial marriage in Virginia. The law has made the Lovings have a marriage in Washington D.C. Oone night in 1958, their house was assaulted by police officers who despise interracial marriage and African Americans. Mildred Loving says "It was about 2AM and I saw this light, you know, and I woke up, and it was the policeman, standing beside the bed. He told us to get up and we was under arrest". Although Mildred says that she is a legal wife of Richard Loving, the police would not let them be a legal couple in Virginia. For that reason, they were imprisoned for a year and banished from the state. Furthermore, the basis of an 18th-century definition of race as shown in the movie "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix". For that reason, the children of mixed marriages experience difficulties who are seen have no rights to live while they are the same as us as humans who live in the country[5].

References

  1. The Loving Story (2011). IMDb. Retrieved January 21 2021
  2. The Lovings Spirituality and Practice. Retrieved January 21 2021
  3. Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. The Loving Story Spirituality and Practice. Retrieved January 21 2021
  4. Hank Stuever. HBO’s ‘The Loving Story’: A resilient romance that changed history. The Washington Post. Retrieved January 21 2021
  5. Cynthia Fuchs. For Valentine's Day, the End of Anti-Miscegenation Laws: 'The Loving Story' PopMatters. Retrieved January 21 2021