The Case for Loving

The Case for Loving written by Selina Alko and illustrated by Selina and Alko and Sean Qualls is a wonderful non-fiction picture book to teach your child about interracial marriage. I recently found this book at the library and was immediately interested in the story about the couple that fought to make interracial marriage legal in their state.

Who are Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter?

Richard and Mildred met like most other couples. After meeting and falling in love, they wanted to get married and have children. However, there was one big problem. Richard and Mildred were an interracial couple and in 1958, marriage between different races was illegal in Virginia. Despite the law, they got married in Washington, D.C. where marriage between different races were legal. Upon their return to Virginia, they got arrested for being married to each other. To prevent any future issues, they had to move their lives including their children to Washington, D.C. Although they lived happily there together, they missed their family and longed to return back to Virginia. With courage and bravery, Richard and Mildred decided to fight to change the law so they could live freely and legally with their family. They also believe in fighting for making marriage legal between races for all future interracial couples.

June 12, 1967

On June 12th, 1967, the case of Loving v. Virginia began at the Supreme Court. It didn’t take long for the decision to be made. The law was changed and Richard and Mildred were finally free at last to be legally married to each other in Virginia.