When Loving was a crime...

The Richard and Mildred Loving Story

The monumental love story of Richard and Mildred Loving resulted in the landmark Supreme Court case that wiped away the last segregation laws in America.

By Biography.com Editors , UPDATED: Jan 16, 2020 | ORIGINAL: Feb 13, 2018

 

To say that Richard and Mildred Loving were reluctant heroes would be an understatement. Richard, with his platinum blonde crew cut, backwoods accent and taciturn ways, looked more like a caricature for a white supremacist. And then there was Mildred. A soft-spoken, shy woman of African and Native-American descent, she possessed a quiet charm but like her husband, had no desire to bring attention to herself.

 

 But the attention would come, and it would change the course of American history.

The couple had to flee Virginia to avoid prison time

In 1958, the couple was jolted out of their bed in the middle of the night and arrested by local Virginia police. Their crime: violating the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which forbid interracial marriage. Although the Lovings were legally married in Washington, D.C., the state of Virginia, which the couple made their home in, was one of more than 20 states that made marriage between the races a crime.

 A local judge allowed the Lovings to flee the state to avoid prison time. The couple decidedly moved to D.C., just two hours away from Virginia, but for the two of them, their whole world — along with their family and friends — was wrapped up in their tiny farming community of Central Point, Virginia. They were simple people who wanted to live a simple life, and they were determined to go back home. After living the next five years in exile and raising their three children, Mildred found an opening.

The Lovings' case went to the Supreme Court

Feeling empowered by the Civil Rights Movement, Mildred wrote to Robert F. Kennedy in 1963 asking for counsel. Kennedy referred her to the ACLU, and it was there that their case eventually went to the Supreme Court. The judges unanimously ruled in favor of the Lovings with Chief Justice Earl Warren writing “the freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.”

The historic ruling led to the overturning of similar statutes in more than a dozen states and ultimately marked the end of segregation laws in America. But for the Lovings, the ruling was simply the freedom to go home and to continue on with their lives, this time, loving without fear.
Although Richard died in 1975 following a car accident, Mildred was able to live long enough to offer her support for gay marriage. On the 40th anniversary of the Lovings' landmark case and a year before her death in 2008, she said in a public statement: “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.”
To look at the Lovings' legacy (along with their improbable last name), they make the saying "love conquers all" that much more believable. 

 

Masks & other things on my mind at the moment

In March, when my social consciousness was aroused, I wanted to do something to help the world.  Corona virus was being recognized as a pandemic and   a serious health concern.

I decided that I would sew masks.  Hundreds of them.  I called the hospital down the road and asked if they needed masks.  They gave me another number to call.  I called that  number and left a message.  Never heard back.  That's okay.  I was not bothered because I figured they were too busy to get back to me.

I got out my fabric.  Printed a few patterns from the internet.  Started cutting up mask patterns from my fabric.  I made two masks and started a third.   Then I stopped.  I am good at sewing and following patterns. But  these patterns got me all confused.

I saw that a friend needed fabric.  I took a bag full to her.   On a crafting page I am on I found that people were having difficulty finding elastic.   So I mailed elastic to a couple of people.

Today while on the phone with another old friend, she mentioned that she has been making masks, but was running out of fabric.  Nick and I drove over, kept social distancing while I put the bag of fabric down in her driveway.   She gave us a couple of masks- that she set down for me to retrieve.   It's so hard to see old friends and have to stand apart.  No hugging.

It's been easier for me than I think it has been for many people.   Nick and I are both home (and now Austin too).  Nick's retired, so doesn't have to go out.   Whatever activities I was involved in are not happening right now, so I am staying put.

I was on a real roll for a while sorting through old letters and filing them in binders.  I still have more binders that I plan to fill.

I found a little spiral notebook.  The kind what you can keep in a pocket or a purse.  There are notes in it from back in 1975 when Nick was first in the Foreign Service.   He wrote in tiny print, the names of possible overseas postings.   I wrote the names of the people I had met in the spouse's class.

There are even a couple of poems that I wrote:

October 12, 1975

The trees looked like broccoli that had gone bad.  Turning yellow and brown against the feathery sky.

Cotton ball clouds  stuck on the poster board blue sky with hunks of school paste.  Lollypop sweet.

Power lines crazing the blue paint.  Hitchhikers looking for a ride to the moon.  And getting there.

Packs on their backs and stars in their eyes.

---------------------------------
Early November 1975

I smack my lips at the delicious weather.  Cheeks blush, chap, sing alive at the wind.   Hair a wild animal grabbing at my eyes.

People dressed like Christmas bundles cursing
the cold under their breath- and loving every minute of it.

Leaves running across a field and into the street.  Stumbling and tripping over each other- giggling the whole time.

A grin full of birds and more crowding the naked  trees trying trying to keep them warm

                                    **********************************
This is a sketch of the house where we lived, in College Park, Maryland.  I don't know if Nick or I drew it

2020? Looking forward to it being hindsight!

That about sums it up!

I feel like I am running out of the words I need to express how rotten 2020 has been so far!

Corona virus.  Pandemic.  Deniers.  Trump's idiocy first saying it's a hoax, then denying the seriousness of the disease.   Today he says :

(CNN)President Donald Trump is getting what he wants: The country is opening up come what may, despite alarming indications that the coronavirus pandemic is intensifying its assault.

Trump says the virus is now reduced to just the "embers" and "ashes" of a spent pandemic as patience for nationwide lock downs fades and states aggressively open up.

The facts say the opposite. Another 1,299 Americans died on Tuesday and more than 112,000 people in the US have died from the disease. There are now more than 2 million confirmed cases in the United States.

Trump is not marking these deaths, just as he was reluctant to immediately honor the first 100,000 Americans who passed away before that terrible milestone was reached -- barely two weeks ago. And this is well before the feared fall resurgence of Covid-19, in the absence of reliable treatments and with a vaccine still months away.

 We still practice social distancing.  We wear masks in public.  We stay home most of the time .
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Black Lives Matter.  Being Black in this country is dangerous.  Especially a Black man.

I am amazed at how little so many people know about Black history and literature.   There is much that I do not know and may never be able to understand.  But I want to know more.  I try.  I read, took a class in African American Literature.  Yes that's a thing.   I watch TV shows about social injustice.  I am sad and sorry for the way so Black many people have been treated and are being treated.   

I don't think I am perfect.  I do not strive to be perfect.  I want to and strive to be good.  As good a person as I can be.  

At times I feel like the American democracy is dying.   But, maybe the fact that there are so many protests, white and Black people together, is progress .  I can hope.

We can do better.  We must do better.  I hope we will be better.

New View of the White House

such a crazy and sad time

A Black man, George Floyd, died under the knee of a police man.  He was restrained by four cops.  The one on his neck held him down for almost nine minutes while George Floyd cried "I can't breath". Until he couldn't.

Black Lives Matter.  That we have to say that, over and over and over is proof that there is an unforgivable set of social standards that is wrong.  Unacceptable.  Painful.  Change is long overdue.

I am not saying anything new.  I don't have the answers.  I am sad.

I have read so many books about Black "culture"and injustice.  I went to a primarily Black high school.  That doesn't mean I can co opt the feelings and say I understand.   But I emphasize.

African American Literature was one of the classes I took at George Mason.  It should be required for all students- especially white students.

The Mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser, has been a positive force for the city and the country.   The fact that Donald Trump dislikes her so much is a testament to what a good person the mayor is.

Mayor Bowser created Black Lives Matter Square on 16th Street facing the White House.

 

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser walks on the street leading to the White House after the words Black Lives Matter were painted in enormous bright yellow letters on the street by city workers and activists Friday, June 5, 2020, in Washington.

"All I Need to Know About Life I Learned from La Leche League" by Marie Simpson

I have been a La Leche League Leader since 1979. These words sum it all up:
"All I Need to Know About Life I Learned from La Leche League"
by Marie Simpson
People before things.
Give information, not advice.
The heart has its own reasons.
Do it gradually, with love.
Family first.
Trust your instincts.
When you have a question, ask.
Every baby is a new beginning.
Inform, educate, support.
Keep it parent-sized.
Surround yourself with supportive people.
Meet everyone where they are.
Take what you can use and leave the rest.
Even if you disagree, you can come back.

On and on and on....

Life goes on.  Nick's raised bed garden is producing.  Radishes and tender, tasty lettuce.  Tomatoes in gardening bags.

I have flowers in flower pots on the front steps.

We watch TV. Hours and hours of it.  It's not much different than before.  If we want to watch different shows, I watch in my recliner in the family room.  Nick has his own TV in his study.

There are still covid deniers.  They fight the wearing of masks.  Claiming that their rights are being violated.

There are people like me.  I stay home.  We walk the dog.  I have not been "anywhere" since March.   I am fine with it.

We are ordering stuff online almost everyday.  Yarn.  Socks. Sheets.   Food.   Furnace filters.  Many of these are things we would have probably ordered anyway.  But I have always enjoyed going to Target and looking for things to buy.

I'm tired.  My knees hurt.  I am gaining weight again.   But, for whatever reason, I don't have trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep.










There is as much bigotry as before.  Maybe more.  


The commander in chief gets crazier and stupider and sometime plain crazier than ever.