Loving v Virginia Background Terms
Who were the Defendants in Loving v Virginia?
Mildred and Richard Loving
What year were the Lovings married?
1958
What year did the Loving case go to the Supreme Court?
1967
Due Process Clause, Equal Protection Clause
A clause of the 14th amendment that states all persons in the United States shall enjoy the "equal protection of the laws." This means that they cannot be discriminated against without good reason
What social issues impacted the Lovings?
Civil Rights Movement, segregation, integration, etc.
Racial Integrity Act of 1924
In 1924, the Virginia General Assembly enacted the Racial Integrity Act. The act reinforced racial segregation by prohibiting interracial marriage and classifying as "white" a person "who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian."
Jurisdiction
The territory over which authority is exercised
Why were the Lovings arrested in the middle of the night?
They got married in Washington DC and returned to Virginia, but in Virginia it was illegal to marry a person from another race.
Instead of having to spend time in jail, what were the Lovings sentenced to?
They were kicked out of Virginia and banished to DC.
inequity
Unfairness or bias
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States
14th amendment
granted citizenship and equal civil and legal rights to African Americans and slaves who had been emancipated after the American Civil War, including them under the umbrella phrase "all persons born or naturalized in the United States
Anti-miscegenation laws-
laws that enforce racial segregation at the level of marriage and intimate relationships by criminalizing interracial marriage and sometimes also sex between members of different races
Words: Miscegenation
the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, or having children.