Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)

"...to deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable
a basis as the racial classifications is surely to deprive
all citizens of liberty without due process of law."

Washington, D.C., 1958. Mildred Jeter marries Richard Loving in the nation's capitol. They then return to their home state of Virginia. That's a crime. Mildred is black. Richard, white. The state's Racial Integrity Act prohibits interracial marriages.

They get a year in jail; suspended, if they'll agree to leave Virginia for at least 25 years. The state judge proclaims: "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

The U.S. Supreme Court sees it differently. "Marriage," writes Chief Justice Earl Warren, "is one of the 'basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival. To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State."

(In this 1967 ruling, Chief Justice Warren notes: "Virginia is now one of 16 States which prohibit and punish marriages on the basis of racial classifications.")

For more...

TV Movie: Mr. and Mrs. Loving

AMENDMENT 14 Due Process and Equal Protection of the Law

Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. [^].

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