— I didn’t realize how bad it was until we got married...
— 50 years ago today,
the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Richard and Mildred Loving,
granting them, and anyone, the right to marry a spouse of a different race.
It was a historic moment for civil rights in America,
but also a very personal one.
We asked couples to mark the anniversary
by explaining what the Loving decision means to them and their families.
— These were simple, country people who were not activists,
they were not civil rights people—
they were in love.
— You know, we’re talking about a time when 40 states in America
would regard us as criminals.
That’s no longer the case.
— There's actually one simple issue,
and the issue is,
may a state proscribe a marriage between two adult consenting individuals because of their race?
— My parents were completely cool with it.
They met Errol quite early on.
I think, a year after—not even a year after we met…
— Well, I had seen “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,”
so of course it was a concern.
— We were all slightly, naively, I think, in my family,
not fully tuned-in to the racial divide in America.
— Vaughn has never been to my parents’ home.
And he’s not welcome there.
For a little while, I was read the riot act,
not just by my parents, my parents didn’t know how to deal with it.
But my brothers were pretty upset, and…
we’re still finding our way.
My parents met Vaughn in May of last year.
They came to New York.
— One time, Chris came to me as we were at a family event and,
even though he’s coming from a very liberal, very progressive, very anti-racist family,
when they see me, they see a black woman,
and that’s always in the interactions that I have with his family.
— I notice color, I’m not colorblind.
It’s not that white folks aren’t white folks,
and black folks aren’t black folks,
but this particular white folk is my soul mate and my best friend.
— There’s never a time when we are in public
when I am not aware that we are an interracial couple.
When we walk into a room, people take notice.
Very early on, black women made it absolutely clear that this was not cool.
— I had asked Janet to marry me on several occasions.
And she refused.
And she refused, because I was serving in the Senate,
and she was afraid that our being married would impede
or, somewhere, somehow, impair my reelection.
— If they had been racist, and held that against him,
I would never have forgiven myself.
Because I could go on loving him without a marriage certificate.
— Now, the state is ignoring a very important point,
and that is the right of Richard and Mildred Loving
to wake up in the morning, or to go to sleep at night,
knowing that the sheriff will not be knocking on their door
or shining a light in their face in the privacy of their bedroom.
— Boy, we’re really getting personal here.
Folks in her family praying that we don't get pregnant, and that's happening.
That was told to Gail, and I can't...
I can't fathom that.
— I think that any preconceptions that interracial marriages,
for some eugenic reason, don’t work,
just are shattered as soon as you see a healthy child.
You can’t look at those boys playing—
they’re healthy, they’re loud, their skinned knees, they’re perfect.
— For me, my concern was that they would be prey to
certain social definitions of who they’re supposed to be.
I wanted their cultural horizons and their formation of their own identities
to be as open as possible.
— My daughter, uh, once referred to herself as orange when she was little.
That was her term.
So we did that, yeah.
— She once drew a picture of herself that was literally half-white and half-black.
That was a little spooky.
— No one can articulate it better than Richard Loving when he said to me,
“Mr. Cohen, tell the court I love my wife,”
“and it is just unfair that I can't live with her in Virginia.”
— I’m the same age as Emmett Till.
So I was 14 when I realized
what white people could do to black people in this country and get away with it.
So when this white boy at Butler University asked me to date him,
I said, “No, I don't date white boys.”
However, if I had continued with that attitude,
I would’ve missed Bill.
— Being married to John keeps me accountable.
Like, I can never do “they.”
I can’t do “they,” “they are,” “they”—
because I’m waking up to this guy.
My husband.
— Intermarriage is intensifying throughout the country.
So, that demographic fact gives us a certain kind of legitimacy.
Not only us, but our children.
So, we actually feel that we’ve been pioneers.
— I think that marrying who you want to
is a right that no man should have anything to do with.
It’s a God-given right, I think.