Free showing of The Loving Story the legal battle of the commonwealth’s ban on interracial marriage

It is always a bit shocking at how recent the battle was for something we now take for granted.

June 12, 2014; 9:20 AM • by Richard Hayes

It’s amazing that only 56 years ago it was illegal for two people of different colors that cared for each other could not be married. It took two brave people to stand up and fight for what they believed in, each other, to change the archaic law. Next Thursday you’ll be able to see the story for yourself at the Virginia Historical Society.

From the press release.

In 1958, Mildred and Richard Loving were arrested in their Caroline County home for violating the commonwealth’s ban on interracial marriage. She was of African American and Native American descent, and he was white. The Loving Story documents their marriage and the legal battle that followed.

The Loving Story is the second in a series of four films being shown by the Virginia Historical Society (VHS) in 2014 to encourage community conversations about the changing meaning of freedom and equality in contemporary American society. The film will be screened on Thursday, June 19, at 6:30 p.m. in the Robins Family Forum at the VHS. This event is free and open to the public.

A panel discussion will follow the screening. Participants include:

Julian M. Hayter, assistant professor of leadership studies, University of Richmond

Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia

Paul Fleisher, assistant to the director, Richmond Peace Education Center

Debra Sims Fleisher, retired public school teacher and administrator

Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle is made possible through a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as part of its Bridging Cultures initiative, in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The series is being offered in partnership with the Richmond Peace Education Center and is supported in part by the Gay Community Center of Richmond’s VHS Guy Kinman Research Award.