Loving Day

Today it seems absurd but as little as 43 years ago multi-racial couples couldn't marry in many states in the U.S.

From Wikipedia...

They first met when she was 11 and he was 17. He was a family friend and over the years they started courting. After she became pregnant, they got married in Washington in 1958, when she was 18.[4] Reportedly, Mildred didn't realize interracial marriage was illegal, and they were arrested a few weeks after they returned to their hometown north of Richmond. They pleaded guilty to charges of "cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth," and avoided jail time by agreeing to leave Virginia. They moved to Washington, D.C. and began legal action by writing to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

Friday, June 12th will mark the 42nd anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision Loving vs. Virginia which struck down all anti-miscegenation laws remaining in 16 states citing "There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the equal protection clause."

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Tomorrow will mark the 6th annual Loving Day Celebration, with the flagship event in New York City and many smaller events across the country.

From Cool Hunting...

When Ken Tanabe stumbled upon the Supreme Court case Loving vs. Virginia, which legalized interracial marriage in the U.S., he was shocked that there was no holiday to commemorate the occasion. So he decided to start his own. "I realized that most people had never heard of this civil rights milestone," he tells CH. "I started Loving Day to fight racial prejudice through education and build multicultural communities. The subject interested me personally because I'm half Japanese, half Belgian and the first American in my family."

Hopefully it won't take 43 more years to provide equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.