Mildred jeter, a black woman, and richard loving, a white man, were residents of virginia. in 1958 they were married in the dist
rict of columbia. the lovings returned to virginia to begin their married lives together. the state of virginia prosecuted and convicted the lovings of violating virginia's statute prohibiting interracial marriages. the lovings were sentenced to a one-year jail term, which would be suspended if they agreed to leave virginia for a 25-year period. the lovings moved to the district of columbia and brought a motion in the virginia trial court to vacate the judgment and set aside the sentence. what due process rights have been violated
The case was brought by Mildred Loving (née Jeter), a woman of color, and Richard Loving, a white man, who had been sentenced to a year in prison in Virginia for marrying each other. Their marriage violated the state's anti-miscegenation statute, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited marriage between people classified as "white" and people classified as "colored". The Supreme Court's unanimous decision determined that this prohibition was unconstitutional, overruling Pace v. Alabama (1883)[2] and ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.
The decision was followed by an increase in interracial marriages in the U.S. and is remembered annually on Loving Day. It has been the subject of several songs and three movies, including the 2016 film Loving. Beginning in 2013, it was cited as precedent in U.S. federal court decisions holding restrictions on same-sex marriage in the United States unconstitutional, including in the 2015 Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges
