Know Your Black History, Know Mildred Loving

"There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the equal protection clause," the court ruled in a unanimous decision."
--U.S. Supreme Court, 1967

Listen up: starting today, the daddy in commemoration of Black History month, will only post on historical figures who worked to make a difference in a positive sense for African Americans, who, as they say in gospel, "...brought us from a mighty long ways." He will post on musical, literary and political figures and events. Some will include historical figures about whom he posted and deserved to be posted again. Some will be new.

One of the people who helped bring us bring us "...from a mighty long ways" was Mildred Loving. If you say you know her, you will not get a prize like you're on a game show. No happy music for you. If you don't know her, don't worry. Chances are you'll still be on the job even in this terrible economy, the moon will hang low tonight, and the sun will rise tomorrow. But you know what? Mildred Loving died recently, and the daddy just had to pause and thank her. But before she left, she made a meaningful contribution to black Americans and America as a whole. What did she do?

Quiet, small Mildred Loving caused a hugh firestorm; she took the state of Virgina to the highest court in the land and won. The Supreme Court struck down laws banning interracial marriage in Virginia and 17 other states. Mildred and her equally kind and "loving" husband Richard were arrested for "co-habitating." They would have gone to jail had they not agreed to leave town. But the Supreme Court declared that such laws denied Mildred and Richard equal protection of the law. So, after 25 years, they moved back back to Virgina. Richard died in 1975.

But laws and history aside, Mildred was just a quiet, humble young woman in love. As she said to the Washington Post in 1992: "The preacher at my church classified me with Rosa Parks. I don't feel like that. Not at all. What happened, we really didn't intend for it to happen. What we wanted, we wanted to come home."

Mildred is home now. She died of pneumonia in her rural home of Milford, Virginia. She was 68. But law knows she helped bring us from a mighty long ways so the next generation could sing "...How I got over/how I got over/My soul looks back and wonder/how I got over."

Know your black history. Know Mildred and Richard Loving.