Celebrate love – and the Supreme Court ruling that struck down laws against interracial marriage – at Rokeby Museum on Valentine’s Day, Sunday, February 14 at 2 pm. We will screen The Loving Story, followed by discussion and refreshments. The program is free.

The Loving Story is a documentary that explores the interracial marriage of Richard and Mildred Loving and the Supreme Court ruling that struck down laws banning such marriages. Loving v. Virginia is one of the landmark Civil Rights cases of the 1960s and has had a new life in the 21st century expanding the right to marry for same sex couples.

When Richard and Mildred Loving married in 1958, they knew it was against the law in Virginia, but they never expected to be arrested in their bedroom in the middle of the night. Forced to live in Washington, DC, they missed their home and family, so they decided to fight. With the assistance of attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, they took their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which decreed that “the freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.”

The documentary brings to life the Lovings' marriage and the legal battle that followed through filmed interviews and photographs shot for Life magazine. Its immediacy derives from the little-known 1960s footage depicting the daily life of the couple and their three children while they were in hiding in a house in Virginia.

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