For those of you who don’t know, Loving Day is the anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision, Loving v. Virginia which struck down all anti-miscegenation laws remaining in sixteen U.S. states.
What that means, is that on this day 53 years ago, it finally became legal for people of different races to marry one another in all 50 states. That meant no more fleeing your home state in order to marry the love of your life. It meant no more having to choose your family and friends over the person you wanted to marry. It meant no more facing a felony conviction and jail time for marrying someone with different colored skin than one’s own.
Born a Crime
Let that sink in for a moment. Before 1967, 42 of 50 states at one time or another banned interracial marriage and “interbreeding.” Yes, Mixed-Race children would automatically be – as Trevor Noah would say – “born a crime” if they were born in Alabama or Virginia, for example.
I’ve written here on the blog many times about the joy of celebrating Loving Day and the many ways to celebrate – from attending a big regional party, to planning your own special day with family and friends. But given the turbulent times we’re in today, I want to contextualize celebrating Loving Day in a different way. I want to remind you that simply by celebrating Loving Day, you are dealing a blow to white supremacy.
Interracial Love Isn’t the Solution, but Celebrating Loving Day Can Be a Start
Be clear, when people of different races fall in love and get married, that doesn’t mean racism disappears. It doesn’t mean that their mocha-latte offspring are going to eradicate white supremacy. A white man who marries a Black woman doesn’t magically become woke either. The truth is, celebrating Loving Day isn’t really about celebrating Mixed-Race relationships and pretty brown babies.
Loving Day is celebrated on the day when the Supreme Court struck down 300-year-old laws that were steeped in white supremacy. These were laws created to maintain a race-based system of slavery and to keep Black people from advancing in society. Slaveowners wanted to ensure that Black people could not use marriage to a white person as a means to escape from slave. They wanted to ensure that Black enslaved women couldn’t give birth to a free child. They wanted to ensure that Black men couldn’t inherit property if they married a white woman with land. These inherently racist laws were created to keep Black people from marrying white people, and therefore improve their social standing. These racist laws were meant to keep Black people from beating the system. So, when the Supreme Court, the legal arm of the American government, finally struck down the last of these laws , it was a major blow to white supremacy.
So while the Loving decision did pave the way for interracial love to be legitimized, it also erased a legacy of Black oppression. And that’s definitely worth celebrating.
Celebrate Loving Day Your Way
I’m not sure how we’re going to celebrate Loving Day in my multicultural household today, but we will celebrate. Feel free to check out today’s Meltingpot Minute podcast episode where I share an inspirational Loving Day speech.
How are you going to celebrate Loving Day? Leave me a comment and let me know!
Peace!
