Lest we forget...

We haven't always had the rights we have today and we are not guaranteed to keep them

Recently my wife and I watched a movie from 2016 called, “Loving.” As it started, I had no idea how personal it would become. It tells the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving. If you don’t recognize their names, I’m not surprised. On the surface, they might seem like just another couple. But this was 1958, they lived in Virgina, Richard was white and Mildred was black. At that time, in 16 states, including Virginia, it was still illegal for people of different races to live together much less be married. One of those states was Texas, where my wife and I were married. In June 1958 with Mildred pregnant, they drove to Washington D.C. for a brief courthouse civil wedding.

Not long after they returned home to Virginia, they were arrested. Their marriage license was not valid in Virginia. Their lawyer convinced the judge that if they plead guilty, he would suspend their sentence of 1 year in jail in exchange for them both agreeing to leave the state of Virginia and to not return together for 25 years. They moved to Washington D.C. to live with members of Mildred’s extended family. They were both used to living in the rural countryside so the city was a big adjustment. Mildred, having seen the Civil Rights marches on TV, wrote to then Attorney General Robert Kennedy for help who referred them to the ALCU. The lawyers from the ALCU felt they had a strong case. Over the next several years, Richard and Mildred had 3 children. After one of them was hit by a car (and survived), Mildred demanded that they move back to rural Virgina. This was a dangerous decision as they now had children and the two of them could easily be arrested and sent to prison for violating the conditions of their parole.

The two lawyers working on their behalf managed to get the case heard by the United States Supreme Court. The state of Virgina’s argument, among other things, was that it was unfair to bring interracial children into the world because they are “bastards.” This is ironic as we now know that those of mixed race are actually stronger because of their genetic diversity. Of course bad decisions are often made out of ignorance, willful or otherwise. While the Lovings didn’t attend the proceedings, Richard asked one of the lawyers to tell the judges, “…I love my wife, and it is just unfair that I can’t live with her in Virginia.” On June 12th, 1967, in an unanimous 9-0 decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Lovings and interracial marriage became legal in all 50 states.

Without this decision, without the courage of Richard and Mildred Loving, my marriage of now 26 years to my wife Jeannie might have never happened as it may have remained illegal and the two of us living together would be a crime. It’s incredible to me that our right to be married became possible in my own lifetime, just 32 years before we were married. There were many people at our wedding old enough that should they have lived in one of those 16 states and had fallen in love with someone of a different race, they would have not been able to legally marry nor live with them. That this was ever illegal almost certainly now seems absurd to most of us but it should be a solemn reminder that some of our rights have not been around all that long.

It’s also a reminder that our rights are not necessarily permanent. There have been rights some of us have had for decades that have recently been taken away and there are innocent, law-abiding citizens here in Texas that have died as a result of that.

It’s easy to believe that we will always have the rights we have today. But we have them because others fought for those rights. We each must keep this in mind lest we forget the rights we now have and cherish can easily be lost if we don’t treat them with the magnitude, importance and unfortunately, frailty they so deserve.