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Mildred & Richard Loving
Mildred & Richard Loving:
The Loving Children:
The Loving Family:
More Mildred and Richard…
Mildred Loving and husband, Richard Loving, were plaintiffs in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Loving vs. Virginia.
Realizing that it was illegal to wed in their native state of Virginia because of the VA Racial Integrity Act of 1924 (which criminalized marriages between white and non-white persons), the Lovings travelled to Washington D.C. to wed. When they returned to their home in the small town of Caroline County, VA, they were arrested that very—the police had allegedly received an anonymous tip. They were each sentenced to one-year in prison; a sentence that could only be suspended if they immediately left the state of Virginia.
Banished to Washington D.C., Mildred wrote about her plight to then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) took up the case and took it all the way to the Supreme Court.
Finally, in 1967, all of their travail paid off. In a landmark Civil Rights ruling, the Supreme Court struck down America’s laws against interracial marriage.
On the 40th anniversary of the ruling, Mildred Loving issued the public statement, “I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight, seek in life.”
Brave Bessie
Bessie Coleman, the first African American female pilot, grew up in a cruel world of poverty and discrimination. Coleman was born in Atlanta, Texas, in 1892 as the tenth of thirteen children. They settled in Waxahachie, Texas, and worked as sharecroppers. Her mother encouraged Bessie’s schooling when she showed an aptitude for math. She eventually moved to Chicago and lived with her brother Walter, a Pullman porter. She became a manicurist and worked in the White Sox barbershop. After learning French, she attended the famous flight school, Ecole d’Aviation des Frères Caudron in Northern France. No schools in America would train a black person.
Coleman returned to the states and performed acrobatics in air shows around the country and gave lectures inspiring audiences that included many children. She believed that there was freedom in the skies and would not perform in an air show with a segregated audience.
In 1998, Reeve Lindbergh, daughter of world-renowned aviator, Charles Lindbergh, wrote the children’s book, “Nobody Owns the Sky: The Story of ‘Brave Bessie’.”
Lindbergh, first learned about Bessie Coleman in 1986, the 60th anniversary of her father’s famous flight. “Bessie was an incredibly brave person who was hardly noticed, while my parents got so much publicity it was difficult for them to live their normal lives. I saw a crazy imbalance and wanted to try to set things right.”
People said she was crazy; it wouldn’t be right.
“You’re a girl, not a man, and you’re not even white!”
But did she stop dreaming? Not quite!
