A landmark namesake dies

Perhaps the most aptly named landmark Supreme Court case was the miscegenation (aka interracial marriage) case Loving v. Virginia, which found laws prohibiting interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.

It seems hard to believe, but in 1958 Mildred Loving and her husband Richard were arrested, jailed and banished from the state of Virginia for 25 years because they dared to be married and present in the state when she was black and he was white. Prohibited from visting family in the state, the Lovings sought legal intervention from the ACLU, who happily obliged and took the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Mildred Loving died last week at the age of 68. Her husband Richard had died in a car accident just 8 short years after the decision that allowed their marriage to be recognized in all 50 states.

RIP, Mrs. Loving. In your name, a great thing was done.