Race/Related: Interracial Love and Marriage

50 Years After Loving v. Virginia View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Sunday, June 11, 2017 [Join Race/Related »]( [Richard and Mildred Loving at their home in Central Point, Va. with their children, Peggy (from left), Donald and Sidney, in 1967.] Richard and Mildred Loving at their home in Central Point, Va. with their children, Peggy (from left), Donald and Sidney, in 1967. Free Lance-Star, via Associated Press CENTRAL POINT, Va. – The house Richard Loving built for his wife, Mildred, is empty now, its front yard overgrown, a giant maple tree shading a birdbath that is slightly askew. It sits down the road from the church graveyard where the couple is buried -- a quiet reminder, their granddaughter Eugenia Cosby says, of the lesson they taught the world: “If it’s genuine love, color doesn’t matter.’’ Monday will be 50 years since the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in Loving vs. Virginia, the landmark case that wiped laws barring interracial marriage off the books in Virginia and 15 other states. Thus did Mildred Loving, both black and Native American, and her husband, Richard, who was white, make civil rights history. Theirs is a powerful legacy. Today, one in six newlyweds in the United States has a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, according to a [recent analysis]( of 2015 census data by the Pew Research Center. That is a five-fold increase from 1967, when just 3 percent of marriages crossed ethnic and racial lines. The decline in opposition to intermarriage is even more striking: In 1990, according to a Pew analysis of data from the University of Chicago’s [General Social Survey]( 63 percent of nonblack adults said they would be very or somewhat opposed to a close relative marrying a black person. Today the figure stands is 14 percent. The Lovings were arrested in July 1958, when the local sheriff burst into their bedroom in the middle of the night, demanding to know what they were doing together. They had married in the District of Columbia, but their union was illegal in Virginia. A county judge offered a deal: they could avoid prison if they promised to leave Virginia and not return for 25 years. They moved to Washington, but a longing for home upended the agreement. Mildred, missing her family, wrote a letter to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. He referred the matter to the American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the constitutionality of Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law. Yet the Lovings -- Richard died in 1975, and Mildred in 2008 -- were reluctant civil rights icons. “It was thrown in my lap,’’ Mrs. Loving [told a Times reporter]( in 1992. “What choice did I have?” So reluctant was Mrs. Loving to talk about her past that Mrs. Cosby, 36, says she learned the details of the story from [movies]( about the case. Mostly, she remembers her grandmother as a ‘’sweet, soft’’ woman, who cooked pot roast for Sunday dinner and taught her how to clean chitterlings — pig intestines, a Southern delicacy. To explore the effects of Loving vs. Virginia, Race/Related would like to hear from you. Has being in an interracial relationship united or divided your family? Please tell us how, [using this form](. To get the conversation started, we put that question to Mrs. Cosby. She identifies as Native American and African American, though she is often mistaken for Latino. On forms that ask questions about race, she pencils in ‘’other.’’ Her husband is fair-skinned, but considers himself black. “Honestly, it’s never had any effect either way,’’ she said, of her own interracial union. “It’s just normal to us. There’s a lot of interracial couples in our family. Some of them worked, some of them didn’t, but I don’t think it was based on the color of their skin.’’ [Sheryl Gay Stolberg, domestic affairs correspondent]( [Eugenia Cosby, a granddaughter of Richard and Mildred Loving, at the church graveyard near the Loving family home in Central Point, Va.]( Eugenia Cosby, a granddaughter of Richard and Mildred Loving, at the church graveyard near the Loving family home in Central Point, Va. Sheryl Gay Stolberg/The New York Times [Opinion]( [How Interracial Love Is Saving America]( By SHERYLL CASHIN Through intimacy across racial lines, more whites are able to see and name racism. ADVERTISEMENT We want to hear from you. We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [racerelated@nytimes.com](mailto:racerelated@nytimes.com?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback). Want more Race/Related? Follow us on Instagram, where we continue the conversation about race through stunning visuals. [Instagram]( [INSTAGRAM]( [Jermerious Buckley, an H.I.V.-positive man in Jackson, Miss.]( Jermerious Buckley, an H.I.V.-positive man in Jackson, Miss. Ruddy Roye for The New York Times [Feature]( [America’s Hidden H.I.V. Epidemic]( By LINDA VILLAROSA Why do America’s black gay and bisexual men have a higher H.I.V. rate than any country in the world? [Peggy Rusk, daughter of President Lyndon Johnson’s secretary of state, Dean Rusk, and Guy Smith on their wedding day at Stanford University Chapel in September 1967. The union of a white woman and a black man was called “a marriage of enlightenment” by Time magazine, which featured the couple’s wedding photo on its cover.] Peggy Rusk, daughter of President Lyndon Johnson’s secretary of state, Dean Rusk, and Guy Smith on their wedding day at Stanford University Chapel in September 1967. The union of a white woman and a black man was called “a marriage of enlightenment” by Time magazine, which featured the couple’s wedding photo on its cover. Rolls Press/Popperfoto, via Getty Images Connect with us. Several descendants of the [slaves sold to keep]( Georgetown University afloat in 1838 have received acceptance letters from the school. Two of them, Elizabeth and Shepard Thomas, and their mother, Sandra, joined Race/Related’s Rachel Swarns and John Eligon for a discussion. [[Watch]( We examine topics related to race and culture each Wednesday at 9 p.m. Eastern on The Times’s [Facebook page](. Know anyone else who might like to subscribe? Then please forward our email to family and friends, and have them sign up at: [( [Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” The film, about an interracial couple planning to marry, became a box-office hit in 1967, the same year as the Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia.] Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” The film, about an interracial couple planning to marry, became a box-office hit in 1967, the same year as the Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia. Columbia Pictures Around the Web Here are some of the stories that we’re talking about, beyond The Times. Bill Maher once questioned a black woman’s blackness over the N-word [[Read]( The forgotten riot that sparked Boston’s racial unrest [[Read]( We're having the wrong conversation about food and cultural appropriation [[Read]( This viral Instagram account is changing Western perceptions of Africa [[Read]( ADVERTISEMENT In The Times The Times publishes many stories that touch on race. Here are a few you shouldn’t miss, chosen by Race/Related editors. [Visa Shortage Spurs Vacancies, for Jobs, at a Tourist Getaway]( By MIRIAM JORDAN The tourism industry on Mackinac Island, Mich., and other regional industries that define the American summer are stuck in the middle of a struggle over jobs and who should be doing them. [Portland Killings Dredge Up Legacy of Racist Laws in Oregon]( By KIRK JOHNSON Legislation in the 1800s prohibited black people from living in Oregon, and the template from the state’s early days has given rise to a volatile political climate. [What Was Bill Maher’s Big Mistake?]( By WESLEY MORRIS The host of “Real Time With Bill Maher” overstepped his privilege as a famous comedian. That’s bad. But it’s not a hate crime. [For Undocumented Mom, Somewhere to Shelter, but Nowhere to Run]( By JULIE TURKEWITZ AND TODD HEISLER Ingrid Latorre has spent half her life undocumented in America, including a recent stint in a Quaker meetinghouse that offered refuge. But she says she can run no more. [Nine Plays, One Truth: Mfoniso Udofia on Her Immigrant Experience, and Ours]( By DIEP TRAN Ms. Udofia mined her family background for what she sees as a true portrait of immigrant experiences in her ongoing theater cycle. [Elena Verdugo, Who Lifted Latina Image on TV, Dies at 92]( By SAM ROBERTS Portraying the astute nurse on “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” Ms. Verdugo was credited with inspiring Hispanic women to strive for greater self-respect. FOLLOW RACE/RELATED [Instagram] [racerelated]( Get more [NYTimes.com newsletters »]( | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. [Subscribe »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's Race/Related newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2017 The New York Times Company 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018