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Honored Contributor
Posts: 37,847
Registered: ‎06-11-2011

I saw this film today and liked it very much. I recommend it.  It's about the Loving couple, Richard Loving a white man and Mildred Loving, a mixed race including black and some Amer. Indian woman, who lived in Virginia and who got married in D.C. in 1958 because racial intermarriage was illegal in Virginia.  And they were arrested when they went back to Virginia to live because they broke the anti- miscegenation (interracial marriage)  law in Virginia.  It is their case that went up to the US Supreme Court, Loving vs. Virginia, and the Court struck down Virginia's law as unconstitutional. 

 

I first read this case in a class in college and I almost couldn't believe that it had happened less than 25 yrs. ago (at the time I read it); during my lifetime.  Their case doesn't go up to the Supr. Court until almost the end of the film and really not much time is spent on that aspect.   Most of the film deals with the relationship between Richard and Mildred and both actors are terrific.  I have seen an HBO documentary on this also, with film footage of the real people which I liked a little better, because it was the real people being shown and there are interviews with the couple's children, so see the doc on HBO some time if you can.  The actors in the film look very much like the real Lovings.   With that as their last name, how could they possibly have lost the case?  What - rule against the Lovings?

 

@Debzzz - I think I saw your hubby as an extra in the film during a masonry scene, as you posted in another forum.  I think he was in one of the early masonry scenes while the couple was still in VA, if he was the guy in the beard wearing a cap and a red plaid flannel shirt.   If that wasn't him, I saw another guy in a beard in a masonry scene in D.C., not wearing any cap and in a blue shirt.  But I think the was the guy I saw first.  Can you please confirm whether he was one of those two?

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws_in_the_United_States

 

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 37,847
Registered: ‎06-11-2011

Photo gallery of the real Loving family.  Photo #4 in the gallery is shown at the end of the film (the real photo) and there's a scene in the film when that photo is taken (it's a famous one).  The couple was watching The Andy Griffith Show on TV and laughing at it when the photographer from Life Magazine  took the photo.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/01/01/magazine/look-loving-versus-bigotry.html?ref=magazine

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,146
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Thanks for posting both links.  I saw the documentary and plan to see the movie as well.  I always wondered what happened to the three children.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 37,847
Registered: ‎06-11-2011

@Luvitorleaveit1   You are welcome.  Please let me know what you think of the film after you see it.

 

Well, I remember the daughter being interviewed in the documentary.....

Honored Contributor
Posts: 20,648
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

I'm really looking forward to this, when it hits streaming or premium cable.

 

I've always known the story and remember seeing a tv movie years ago and have since seen a couple of doc pics on them.   

 

They were an amazing story.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 37,847
Registered: ‎06-11-2011

I'm reading about this case online now.  This is quite shocking! 

 

"Though the Supreme Court’s 1967 decision in the Loving case struck down miscegenation laws, Southern states were sometimes slow to change their constitutions; Alabama became the last state to do so, in 2000."

 

The entire article was interesting - although I'm posting the link to it, be warned it contains spoilers that will spoil some of the film's plot.  It's from the NY Times obituary for Mildred Loving when she passed away at age 68.  I does mention that one of their sons died in 2000. Again, SPOILERS:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/us/06loving.html

 

 

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,146
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

It appears the daughter is the only living child both brothers Sidney and Donald passed away rather young in 2010 and 2008.

 

What a story and a case the Lovings had though; when I watched the documentary they both seemed to be very private people that just wanted to be together and raise their family but instead it turn into much more than that unfortunately.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 15,628
Registered: ‎01-06-2015

I want to see this movie. It is shocking, what a sad chapter in our history.

"You call him The Edge, I just call him The"
Honored Contributor
Posts: 37,847
Registered: ‎06-11-2011

@Luvitorleaveit1 wrote:

It appears the daughter is the only living child both brothers Sidney and Donald passed away rather young in 2010 and 2008.

 

What a story and a case the Lovings had though; when I watched the documentary they both seemed to be very private people that just wanted to be together and raise their family but instead it turn into much more than that unfortunately.


@Luvitorleaveit1  They were indeed private people and just wanted to be together.  However, I don't think it's unfortunate that it turned out to be much more than that.  If Mildred hadn't pursued the lawsuit after being approached by the ACLU to pursue it, it would have been even longer before the law prohibiting interracial marriages would have been struck down.   The film shows how the publicity about them helped the public opinion outrage about their situation.  

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,146
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

@Pearlee- I just meant it was unfortunate that the Lovings had to go through that in the first place when they only wanted to live their lives like everybody else; not to lessen the impact of the law prohibiting interracial marriages.