Loving v. Virginia was a Supreme Court case that overturned the conviction of Mildred and Richard Loving in 1967. Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving exchanged wedding vows in 1958 in Washington, D.C. where interracial marriage was legal. Upon returning to Virginia, and only weeks after their marriage, they were arrested and indicted on charges of violating Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924. Under this anti-miscegenation law, their union was deemed a felony. This led to a one-year prison sentence in Caroline County, Virginia, which would only be suspended under the condition they leave Virginia and not return together for 25 years.

The Lovings reluctantly relocated to Washington, D.C. Seeking assistance in their case, Mildred wrote to then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy who referred her to the American Civil Liberties Union. With the assistance of the ACLU, the legal battle began in 1963 when they filed a motion in Caroline County, Virginia to vacate their conviction. That motion was refused as was the subsequent motion to the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. Following one final appeal, the case landed with the United States Supreme Court in 1967. On June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion where justices found that Virginia’s Interracial Integrity Act violated the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution.

This landmark ruling is considered a major moment for Civil Rights in the United States and is widely considered the beginning of the dismantling of “Jim Crow” race laws. Centuries of American laws banned miscegenation – the marriage or interbreeding among people considered to be of different races – and used these laws to promote and enforce segregation. Loving v. Virginia began the slow process of dismantling these laws while also providing the foundation for future cases addressing equality, specifically Obergefell v. Hodges which legalized same-sex marriage in 2015. Loving v. Virginia is a monumental moment in the history of racial equality in the United States, yet it has a very humble beginning in the town of Central Point in Caroline County, Virginia where Mildred and Richard lived. By the spring of 2025, Virginia Opera and the Richmond Symphony plan to bring this important story to life with a newly commissioned opera.