On June 11, the House approved, by voice vote, a resolution (H. Res. 431) to commemorate the 1967 Supreme Court Loving v. Virginia ruling that ended the ban on interracial marriage in the United States.
Sponsored by Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), the resolution notes that in 1948, 38 states still prohibited interracial marriage. In June of 1958, two residents of Virginia, Mildred Jeter, a black/Native American woman, and Richard Perry Loving, a Caucasian man, were married in Washington, DC. When they returned to Virginia, the couple was charged with violating Virginia’s anti-miscegenation statutes. The Lovings pleaded guilty and were sentenced to one year in prison, with a suspended sentence for 25 years on condition that they leave Virginia. The couple moved to the District of Columbia and began a series of lawsuits challenging their convictions, which were upheld by the state courts. The Lovings then brought their case to the Supreme Court on the grounds that the Virginia anti-miscegenation laws violated the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment and were therefore unconstitutional. In 1967, the Supreme Court overturned the Lovings’ convictions; the Loving v. Virginia ruling struck down the anti-miscegenation laws remaining in 16 states.
Rep. Baldwin said, “The Loving decision marked a critical step forward in our nation’s struggle toward equal rights for all, particularly full marriage equality. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, from 1970 to the year 2000 the percentage of interracial marriages has increased from one percent of all marriages to more than five percent.” Pointing out that the judge who defended the decision to convict the Lovings said that racial separation was “part of God’s plan,” Rep. Baldwin stated, “Unfortunately, after 40 years, similar types of arguments are still being employed by a few to deny full marriage equality to everyone. In commemorating the legacy of Loving v. Virginia in ending the ban on interracial marriage in the United States, H. Res. 431 reaffirms the Loving court’s recognition that marriage is one of the ‘basic civil rights of man’ at the heart of the 14th amendment protections.”
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said, “Today, it looks like a clear decision. It looks easy; it’s simple. None of us would have any trouble with this Loving decision; but, in fact, then it was a matter of an idea whose time had finally come. But the Supreme Court laid out very clear language in their decision that legislative classifications based on race were ‘odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality,’ and further condemned Virginia’s interracial marriage statute.” Noting that “traditional families are the fundamental units of our society,” he added, “But marriage embraces only one principle, and that is the marriage of a union between a man and a woman, and the further distinction of that and to have government draw a distinction between people based upon their ethnicity should be abhorrent to a free people.”
