Thursday, January 19, 2012

Free To Be

It's mind blowing to me that in the late sixties, interracial marriage was against the law in sixteen states. Then again, when I sometimes walk down the street with my family and feel stares, the late sixties don't seem so far away. 
“When any society says that I cannot marry a certain person, that society has cut off a segment of my freedom.” --Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 1958.
I'm dying to see the photographic exhibit by Grey Villet, who documented the story of interracial couple Richard and Mildred Loving in the 1960s.
The Loving Story: Photographs by Grey Villet  
International Center of Photography
January 20 through May 6, 2012
Forty-five years ago, sixteen states still prohibited interracial marriage. Then, in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the case of Richard Perry Loving, a white man, and his wife, Mildred Loving, a woman of African American and Native American descent, who had been arrested for miscegenation nine...
An HBO Documentary on the couple and their fight airs on Valentine's Day.  
I hope that forty five years from now, people will find it mind blowing and unbelievable that gay marriage was once prohibited, too.

3 comments:

Madeleine Kerr said...

I think it's so insanely full of cosmic justice that their name was Loving. I posted on this the other day because as I plan my wedding with so much love in my heart, I read this article and thought, if there was a law that said I couldn't marry the man I'm marrying because of his brown complexion and my pale, freckled complexion, I'd want to scream at anyone and everyone--oh and the government, that love has nothing to do with anything else but love. Ever. P.s. And yes, it is weird and wrong when people give you a look when you're walking down the street with each other, but when it's us, I look at that person right back with a smile because all I'm thinking is, jealous much?:)

Miss A said...

I can't wait to see the documentary. They were such a beautiful couple, a simple and strong couple.
Yes, like you I hope that our next generations will find it silly that gay marriage was ever controversial.

Laura Mauk said...

@Maddy, I LOVE this comment. Such a brilliant and positive way of looking at things.

@MissA, you're right--and I think simple and strong is underrated.

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