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National Loving Day

Laws against inter-racial marriages weren’t fully eradicated until 1967. Celebrate love in all forms by gathering with your friends, family, and loved ones.

Love People & Relationships65

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Celebrate love and inclusion in June by connecting brands to social justice narratives and community-driven experiences that resonate with diverse, values-driven audiences.

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Host a community film screening of 'Loving' paired with inclusive dining or social events
Launch a user-generated social campaign celebrating diverse love stories with branded hashtags
Partner with local communities for multi-ethnic festivals, food celebrations, and live entertainment
Create educational content about the Loving v. Virginia case and its ongoing impact on equality

History

Loving vs. Virginia was a critical Supreme Court case, but it was also the story of a real couple’s love. Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving grew up in Virginia, USA. They fell in love and decided to get married.

Regrettably, getting married was not that simple in 1958. Mildred was a young black woman and Richard, a respectable white male. The law forbade people of different races to marry each other, and this was true in many states – including Virginia. However, interracial marriages were legal in Washington, DC, at that time. Therefore, they decided to go to DC, get married, and return to Virginia to begin their life together.

This, however, was only a short term solution. The law in Virginia not only forbade interracial marriage ceremonies, but it also prohibited interracial couples from getting married elsewhere and then returning to their home state. Not long after their return to Virginia, the newly-married Loving couple was awakened by the police and taken to jail for the crime of having an interracial marriage.

Richard and Mildred went to trial, and the judge found them guilty and sentenced them to jail term three years. However, the Judge said that he would suspend the sentence if they agreed to leave Virginia for twenty-five years. Given the choice between imprisonment and banishment, they chose banishment, and the Lovings moved to Washington, DC to live out their married life.

Though the Lovings were able to live together legally in Washington, they did not have an easy time; they faced discrimination everywhere. They were facing emotional hardship with the separation from their families. Life was both difficult and horrible for the Lovings. In extreme anxiety, Mildred sent a letter to Robert F. Kennedy, Attorney General of the United States, explaining their life and difficulties that they were facing as an interracial couple in Washington.

Mildred’s letter was sent on to the offices of the American Civil Liberties Union in New York City. They took interest in the case and helped the Lovings find an attorney for their case. Two lawyers, Bernard S. Cohen, and Philip J. Hirschkop, also felt that not only the Lovings but all Americans were entitled to be married and to live in the state of their choice. Due to the difficulties that they faced they agreed to take on the case for free.

After a long and hard legal battle, the Lovings’ case eventually appeared before the United States Supreme Court. The Court decided after hearing the hardship that the Lovings faced and hearing about the many people that were unable to get married, the Court voted unanimously in their favor.

Ultimately, after nine years of struggle, the Lovings won the right to live together as husband and wife in their home state of Virginia. In the words of Chief Justice Earl Warren, “Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides within the individual and cannot be infringed on by the State.”

Not only did the case win them their freedom to love each other, but it also granted the same freedom to every interracial couple in every state in the USA. At the time of the Loving case, sixteen states had laws prohibiting interracial couples from marrying.

Loving v. Virginia (1967) made it illegal for any state to enforce those laws which stop interracial marriage. These laws did not only apply to black and white people; in many states, restrictions on relationships with Asians, Native Americans, Indians, Hispanics, and other ethnic groups were abolished.

National Loving Day, therefore, is a celebration of the Supreme Court’s Decision in 1967 to prevent individual states, like Virginia, from preventing people from getting married because they are of different races. The original idea to dedicate a day in the calendar to honor this momentous decision came from Ken Tanabe. Ken was from a mixed-race family, having a Belgian mother and a Japanese father. He wanted to create a day that would celebrate multi-ethnic families and help bring people together.

For that reason, he launched National Loving Day in 2004 in honor of Richard and Mildred Loving, who first brought the court case. Since then, it has grown enormously in popularity, and now people all over the world celebrate it. The occasion is becoming increasingly relevant as global travel is making it easier for couples from different countries to get together and form relationships.

How to celebrate

Watch a Film

One idea is to watch the film Loving, released in 2016. The production follows the lives – and struggles – of Richard and Mildred as they fight for justice. You see everything, from their initial encounter to their arrest on charges of being illegally married, to their move to Washington DC. You see how racism affected them and shaped their lives. And you get a sense of the tremendous cultural victory they won through their Supreme Court legal battle. If you’re not a film buff, but you like documentaries, then you might want to check out the 2012 Loving Story – a short production that first featured on HBO. It shares some of the lesser-known details of the couple’s relationship and how their trials actually wound up strengthening their bond.

Attend an Event

Many communities across the world also mark National Loving Day with special festivals and events. In New York, for instance, multi-ethnic communities put on shows and organize large gatherings to celebrate the Supreme Court decision. They eat delicious food and dance to music. You could also celebrate the day as millions of people do by cooking a backyard BBQ. It’s just a simple occasion with friends, family, and great food to honor the fact that love knows no bounds – racial or otherwise.

Share with Others

How you celebrate the day is entirely up to you. Many people will post supportive messages on social media or share content created by Ken Tanabe, the day’s founder. Others might want to pen a Facebook post discussing the reasons why people might want to celebrate the occasion. It’s entirely up to you. National Loving Day marks a significant event in history. It commemorates the idea that no authority can dictate who can and who can’t love. It is a glorious victory for freedom and a big step forward in human rights for everyone affected by the decision. Couples like Richard and Mildred will certainly not be the last. National Loving Day Timeline1664 Maryland’s First Colonial Ban Maryland enacts the first known British North American law explicitly punishing marriages between white women and enslaved Black men, setting an early template for anti‑miscegenation policy in what becomes the United States.[1]1691 Virginia Outlaws Interracial Unions The Virginia colony passes a law forbidding marriages between “English or other white” people and Black or Indigenous people, and orders banishment for offenders, embedding racial hierarchy into early marriage regulation. [1]1867–1883 Reconstruction and Pace v. Alabama In the post–Civil War era, many Southern states retained or reenacted interracial marriage bans; the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Pace v. Alabama (1883) upheld such laws, ruling that equal punishment for both partners does not violate equal protection. [1]1924 Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act Virginia adopts the Racial Integrity Act, strictly defining “whiteness” and criminalizing marriage between white people and anyone classified as “colored,” becoming one of the most influential and restrictive anti‑miscegenation statutes in the country. [1]1948 California’s Perez v. Sharp The California Supreme Court ruled in Perez v. Sharp that the state’s ban on interracial marriage violates the Fourteenth Amendment, making California the first state high court to strike down an anti‑miscegenation law on constitutional grounds. [1]1948 UN Affirms Freedom to Marry Across Races The United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose Article 16 recognizes the right of men and women to marry “without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion,” giving interracial couples a powerful new human rights framework. [1]June 12, 1967 Loving v. Virginia Legalizes Interracial Marriage NationwideIn a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that state bans on interracial marriage violate the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses, invalidating remaining anti‑miscegenation laws in 16 states. [1]

Maryland’s First Colonial Ban

Maryland enacts the first known British North American law explicitly punishing marriages between white women and enslaved Black men, setting an early template for anti‑miscegenation policy in what becomes the United States. [1]

Virginia Outlaws Interracial Unions

The Virginia colony passes a law forbidding marriages between “English or other white” people and Black or Indigenous people, and orders banishment for offenders, embedding racial hierarchy into early marriage regulation. [1]

Reconstruction and Pace v. Alabama

In the post–Civil War era, many Southern states retained or reenacted interracial marriage bans; the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Pace v. Alabama (1883) upheld such laws, ruling that equal punishment for both partners does not violate equal protection. [1]

Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act

Virginia adopts the Racial Integrity Act, strictly defining “whiteness” and criminalizing marriage between white people and anyone classified as “colored,” becoming one of the most influential and restrictive anti‑miscegenation statutes in the country. [1]

California’s Perez v. Sharp

The California Supreme Court ruled in Perez v. Sharp that the state’s ban on interracial marriage violates the Fourteenth Amendment, making California the first state high court to strike down an anti‑miscegenation law on constitutional grounds. [1]

UN Affirms Freedom to Marry Across Races

The United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose Article 16 recognizes the right of men and women to marry “without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion,” giving interracial couples a powerful new human rights framework. [1]

Loving v. Virginia Legalizes Interracial Marriage Nationwide

In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that state bans on interracial marriage violate the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses, invalidating remaining anti‑miscegenation laws in 16 states. [1]

FAQ

How did the Loving v. Virginia decision change marriage law in the United States?

The Supreme Court’s 1967 ruling in Loving v. Virginia struck down all remaining state laws that banned interracial marriage, holding that such bans violated both the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court recognized marriage as a fundamental right that could not be restricted based on race, which instantly invalidated anti-miscegenation statutes in more than a dozen states and set a precedent later cited in other marriage rights cases. [1]

How has public opinion about interracial marriage shifted since the 1960s?

Public support for interracial marriage in the United States has increased dramatically since the 1960s. Gallup polling found that only 4% of Americans approved of marriages between Black and White people in 1958, while by 2021, approval had risen to 94%. This shift reflects broader changes in attitudes toward race, integration, and family life over several decades. [1]

How common are interracial or interethnic marriages in the United States today?

Interracial and interethnic marriages are much more common now than when anti-miscegenation laws were struck down. According to the Pew Research Center, about 17% of newlyweds in 2015 were married to someone of a different race or ethnicity, compared with roughly 3% in 1967. The share of currently married people in intermarriages has also grown steadily, especially among younger adults and in urban areas. [1]

Did Loving v. Virginia influence later court decisions about marriage equality?

Loving v. Virginia has been an important precedent in later marriage equality cases because it framed the freedom to marry as a fundamental right that cannot be denied without a compelling constitutional reason. In Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in the United States, the Supreme Court explicitly cited Loving as part of the legal foundation for recognizing marriage as a fundamental liberty interest protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.[1]

Are interracial marriages more likely to fail than same-race marriages?

Research does not support a simple claim that interracial marriages are inherently more likely to fail. Studies reviewed in psychology and social science literature indicate that relationship quality and stability are influenced by factors such as income, education, age at marriage, and social support, rather than race difference alone. Some interracial couples may face added external stressors like discrimination or lack of family support, but these are social pressures, not evidence that such marriages are less viable by nature. [1]

What kinds of challenges do interracial couples commonly report facing today?

Many interracial couples report that their main challenges involve external pressures rather than conflicts within the relationship. These can include biased remarks from strangers, lack of acceptance from relatives, assumptions that the relationship is a “phase” or a fetish, and navigating different cultural traditions or expectations. Couples often respond by setting clear boundaries, seeking supportive communities, and intentionally learning about one another’s cultural backgrounds.[1]

How do social attitudes toward interracial marriage vary around the world?

Attitudes toward interracial marriage differ significantly by country and region. Surveys in the United States and much of Western Europe show broad acceptance, while some societies in Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa report higher levels of disapproval, often tied to ethnic, religious, or caste-based boundaries. Comparative studies note that legal status, history of migration, and the degree of social segregation or conflict between groups all influence how interracial couples are perceived and treated.