Richard and Mildred Loving raised three children Sidney, Donald and Peggy. Scholar and write Arica Coleman has explained that Sidney was Mildred’s son from a prior relationship. Donald was born 4 months after they were married. Peggy is their only daughter.
Chief Justice Ear Warren wrote the unanimous Loving v. Virginia. “To deny this right on so unsupportable a basis as racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment,” wrote Warren , “is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law.”
Thurgood Marshall would join the Supreme Court a few months after the Loving v. Virginia decision. Marshall who married his second wife, Cecilia Suyat who is of Filipino descent, in 1955 was in an interracial marriage himself. In a 2016 Washington Post interview, his widow Cecilia “Cissy” Marshall said that when he first proposed she responded:
“‘No way. No way. People will think you are marrying a foreigner’ . . . He said, ‘I don’t care what people think. I’m marrying you.’ He was so persuasive. So we got married. And, actually, there was no repercussion because people knew me.”
We are excited to share two special film screening programs that feature filmmaker Q&As and also a special discussion with leading scholars in their fields. We will showcase recent films about interracial relationships in the morning program and films about the mixed-race and multiracial experience and identity in the afternoon program. Immediately following the screenings there will be scholar-led talks that connect current storytellers’ work in a larger historical and legal framework and link the social, cultural and economic status of multiracial populations to the broader dynamics and politics of race. There will be an opportunity for the audience to ask questions. Filmmakers will also be available to answer audience questions.
Exploring the impact of race and culture on relationships, PG is specifically pertaining to parents that feel uncomfortable with their children being romantically involved with someone outside of their race/culture. The film ventures through different avenues of dealing with this issue, while still maintaining one’s relationship with their parents.
Akil McKenzie is a film director, cinematographer, and editor that is enrolled in his third year at Sheridan College’s Bachelor of Film and Television. He has filmed and edited weddings, short films, music videos, and more. He is a hard worker that takes pride in his work and adjusts quickly to any situation. He is very easy going with a charismatic attitude.
Kimberly West-Faulcon, the former Western Regional Counsel and Director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc, holds the James P. Bradley Endowed Chair of Constitutional Law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. West-Faulcon was featured in the Los Angeles Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance “Freedom’s Sister” Exhibit as a “Southern California Freedom’s Sister” in 2011. In addition to her selection as a “Southern California Super Lawyer” in 2004, 2005, and 2006 and a “Rising Star Lawyer Under 40” in 2004 by Los Angeles Magazine, she was recognized in the 1999 millennial issue of Ebony magazine as one of Ebony’s “Ten for Tomorrow” (along with Serena Williams, Sean Combs, Chris Rock, and Tiger Woods) “who will almost certainly redefine their fields in the next millennium.” She has also been featured, quoted and interviewed extensively by national media such as CNN, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education and NPR.
This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program or on this website do not necessarily represent those of California Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
In this interactive storytelling workshop you will learn how to tell your Mixed experience story. Using improv, breath awareness, and voice techniques, participants will learn skills to inhabit curiosity and their full selves. This interactive workshop is led by professional actor and master teacher Rayme Cornell.
Rayme Cornell is an Assistant Professor on the Performance Faculty at UNLV. She teaches in the Graduate studio and is the Head of Undergraduate Actor training. She has been a Professional Actor for over 20 years. Rayme is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Actors Equity Association. Rayme received her B.A. in Musical Theatre from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and her MFA in Acting & Directing from the University of Missouri Kansas City in association with the Missouri Repertory Theatre. She was the host of the national award winning PBS show Real Moms, Real Stories, Real Savvy. She has worked in film, television, Off Broadway and with some of the nation’s most prestigious Regional Theatres including, The Old Globe, The Alley, Crossroads, ATC, The Vineyard, Nevada Conservatory Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Primary Stages, The O’Neill, Missouri Rep., Unicorn Theatre and with New York’s famous Acting Company. Rayme is a private coach for professionals. Her speech and acting clients range from network News Anchors and Celebrity Chefs to UFC champions. Rayme is also known for her extensive voice-over work. Rayme is a Master Teacher at the Don LaFontaine Voice Over Lab at the Screen Actors Guild Foundation in Los Angeles and New York. Rayme has represented such products as L’Oreal, Ford, Dunkin Donuts, Cingular, Singulair, Lifetime, WE, Oxygen Network, USA Network, MTV, VH1, BET, ESPN, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Republican and Democratic Candidates and many more. Her greatest role to date is that of being Brick’s Mom.
23andMe Brings to Light History’s Impact on Today’s FamiliesA generation ago interracial marriage was banned in Virginia and 15 other states. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court case decision repealing those laws, sparked by a courageous couple who dared to love one another, get married and challenge the law.
But for many couples that crossed racial lines, the Loving decision came too late.
Recently, a young law student in Virginia, Katrina Callsen, uncovered her own side of the story, with the help of modern science – a genetic test from 23andMe. Join Katrina and father in conversation as they share her discovery and the ripple effect it’s had on their family.
Today, there are two wonderful children’s books that help explain the story of the Lovings and the Supreme Court case:
The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage by Selina Alko and Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case by Patricia Hruby Powell.
The Loving v. Virginia decision continues to play an important role in the lives of interracial couples and mixed-race people. Here are quotes from moving essays about what the Supreme Court decision has meant in the personal lives of these writers:
Do you have your own story of how the Loving v. Virginia decision has affected you or your family? Let us know info(at)mixedremixed.org.
Join us for the 4th annual Mixed Remixed Festival at the Los Angeles Theatre Center 6/10. FREE! Registration opens 5/1.
Mildred Loving died in 2008. She had stopped giving public interviews in her last years. But in 2007–the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision–she issued a statement concerning marriage equality.
“My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.
Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the “wrong kind of person” for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.
I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.”
It was just two years ago that the Supreme Court made marriage equality the law of the land in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015).
The countdown continues! See you at the Mixed Remixed Festival in Los Angeles 6/10! FREE!
I was surprised to learn last year that that Mildred Loving did not consider herself African-American. While researching her excellent book That the Blood Stay Pure: African Americans, Native Americans and the Predicament of Race and Identity in Virginia, Arica Coleman had a chance to interview Mildred Loving. Loving told Coleman emphatically: “I am not black . . I have no black ancestry. I am Indian-Rappahannock. I told the people when they came to arrest me.”
Arica Coleman has done some great writing about this subject and all of the implications. You can read her Time Magazine article The White and Black Worlds of Loving v. Virginia and her scholarly piece Mildred Loving The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Woman.
What do you make of that fun fact? Let us know by leaving a comment or email us at info(at)mixedremixed.org.
The countdown continues!
Join us for the 4th Annual Mixed Remixed Festival June 10, 2017 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in downtown LA. FREE!
Today we kick off our 50-day Fun Fact Countdown until the Mixed Remixed Festival where we are hosting the nation’s largest celebration of the 50th a
nniversary of Loving v. Virginia. We thought it would be fun to highlight a different aspect of the case and how it has changed America each day for 50 days. Do you have a fun fact about the case or the way it affected your life? We want to hear about it! Email us at info@mixedremixed.org with your story and we will feature it in one of our posts.
Today’s fun fact is:
The law Richard and Mildred Loving were accused of violating was the Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited interracial marriage and defined a white person as someone with “no discernible nonwhite ancestry.”
Okay, this is not a “fun” fact. But can you believe it?
stristr(): Argument #1 ($haystack) must be of type string, array given
