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June 12
Mildred and Richard Loving, Nelson Mandela, and Medgar Evers
David Barnhart
June 12, 2025
Swimming hole, Alabama, 2019. Own photo.
Today is National Loving Day. On June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court overturned laws forbidding interracial marriage. Mildred and Richard Loving were married in Virginia in June of 1958 and were arrested in July. They were forced to leave Virginia, and eventually filed suit, which led to the ruling 9 years later. In 2015, 17% of newlyweds, 11 million people, had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity.
Today is also the day, in 1964, that Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison in South Africa. He would spend 27 years there. In 1993, he received the Nobel Peace prize, and the following year was elected president of South Africa.
Today marks the death of NAACP organizer and veteran Medgar Evers, murdered at his home in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963 by a Klansman.
Reflection:
Medgar Evers said:
“When you hate, the only person that is suffering is you because most of the people you hate don’t know it and the rest don't care.”
and
“Certainly we cannot do the will of God without treating our fellow man as we would have him treat us. It is a biblical axiom that to say you love God and hate your fellow man is hypocrisy of possibly the greatest magnitude. So many of us fall into this category either consciously or unconsciously until it behooves each of us to check ourselves closely so as to avoid becoming a party to hate or misunderstanding.”
Mildred Loving wrote:
“My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God's plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation's fears and prejudices have given way, and today's young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.
“Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the "wrong kind of person" for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people's civil rights.”
The current fascist regime rode to power on decades of white grievance and racism, and the Christian right coalesced around a religious strategy of enforcing segregation. Bob Jones University was at the center of this fight, and it is important to note that it was not until the year 2000 that they allowed interracial dating—thirty-three years after Loving v. Virginia.
Prayer: Spirit of Love, the forces of this world that are hostile to you clothe themselves in the language of religion and law. Reveal everything and help those of us loyal to you become law-breakers of every rule that stands in the way of love and justice. Amen.