Loving Day: A Reflection

Mildred & Richard Loving. Were it not for their journey through the bowels of the worst beliefs that this country has obstinately stood by, my and my Black husband’s journey would have been vastly different.

Mildred (Black) & Richard (white) Loving were married in 1958 in defiance of standing anti-miscegenation laws in their home state of Virginia. I’ve never heard that word (miscegenation) before today but I am well aware that “mixing with another ‘kind’” was the basis of these laws, aimed, of course, at people who marry someone of a different skin color. Mildred & Richard presumably went to DC to marry legally. Days after their return to Virginia, early one morning, deputies barged into their home and arrested them for “cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth.”

If you’re not feeling indignant right now, check yourself. Part of their deal for pleading guilty was to be exiled from Virginia for 25 years. From their home in DC, and while raising their children, Mildred and Richard began legal action through the ACLU. Ultimately, the Supreme Court unanimously found these laws (that still existed in 16 states) to be unconstitutional. I recount all this today to rehearse how Claude and I (married 10 short years after the Supreme Court decision) were spared much of what Mildred and Richard suffered, to remind myself of what it takes to be a part of the struggle for freedom in this world where lightness of skin is esteemed as some kind of standard against which we measure another person’s worth or lack thereof.

CHANGE MUST COME. Many warriors have given their lives to the struggle. Who are we to shrug our shoulders and opt out of our own humanity? May the needed change be accelerated by each of us in our unique spheres of influence. No justice? No peace!

Your sister in the struggle,

Sue Solano