Mildred Jeter, an African American woman and Richard Loving, a white man,were childhood sweethearts in Caroline County, Virginia who decided to get married. The marriage laws in Virginia said that no white person could marry a non-white person. Because of this law, the couple went to Washington in June of 1958 and were married. After they returned home, the local sheriff burst into their bedroom and arrested Mr. and Mrs. Loving. To avoid going to jail, the couple left Virginia and moved to Washington. They soon became frustrated that they could not visit their families in Virginia for fear of being arrested.
In 1963, Mrs. Loving wrote the US Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, who referred her case to the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). The case was taken all the way to the US Supreme Court.
On June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court ruled that the laws forbidding inter-racial marriages were unconstitutional.
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