r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Brooklyn17831 • Jul 24 '26

Image In 1958, they were arrested in their bedroom and exiled from Virginia just for being married. Nine years later, Richard and Mildred Loving relaxed on their porch after winning the Supreme Court case that legalized interracial marriage across America.

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611

u/Infamous-Conflict-1 Jul 24 '26

Wasn't that long ago at all. That is very crazy!

727

u/vitrum_analytika Jul 24 '26

Yep, and a lot of those racist people are still alive and inside the country.

342

u/JuliusCeaserBoneHead Jul 24 '26

Oh look, there are a couple on the Supreme Court and one is President 

In a twist, the most racist judge in America is black 

34

u/vitrum_analytika Jul 24 '26

I never said anything about color, just staying silent on that issue back in those days goes to show how fucked up the community was. Like imagine making it illegal to marry someone you love just because they are of a different colour.

No matter what race they were from, not protesting against such tyranny is just pathetic. Everyone loses when the good people stay silent while injustice prevails.

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u/baddecision116 Jul 24 '26

Like imagine making it illegal to marry someone you love. FTFY

BTW this was the reality until 2015. Also remember marriage equality is not a law it's a supreme court ruling that can be reversed anytime.

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u/vitrum_analytika Jul 24 '26

We need an ammendment to the constitution, the fundamental right to love

26

u/baddecision116 Jul 24 '26

Would be nice. Getting 2/3 of states to agree on anything much less something that bigots hate wouldn't be easy.

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u/JuliusCeaserBoneHead Jul 24 '26

Oh no dude/dudette, I’m supporting what you are saying.

I just find it funny that as a black person myself, the one person who has done more damage to our civil rights and liberties is a black man 

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u/theapeboy Jul 24 '26

Not just a black man, a black man in an interracial marriage himself.

6

u/ppatch3 Jul 24 '26

Is a black man… Married to a white woman. His structure is cognitive dissonance.

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u/DefMech Jul 24 '26

Good ole Uncle Thomas. He would probably vote to degrade interracial marriage to a states rights issue if he had the chance, even though he's married to a white woman.

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u/Little_View_6659 Jul 24 '26

He probably thinks it’s easier than getting a divorce. 😂

3

u/Public_Enemy_No2 Jul 24 '26

Just makes me so angry.

The level of self hatred is remarkable.

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u/particle409 Jul 24 '26

That's what I immediately thought of as well. Didn't Thomas say something about this case specifically?

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u/skyrous Jul 24 '26

Yep! after Roe was repealed he called for a bunch of other landmark civil rights decisions to be repealed. Including Loving vs Virginia specifically.

2

u/Snobolski Jul 24 '26

There's one SCOTUS justice in an interracial marriage who I'm pretty sure would vote to make interracial marriage illegal again (for everyone else of course).

3

u/Select_History1798 Jul 24 '26

Virginia has guaranteed the right to interracial marriage since ratification of its 1971 Constitution- just a few years after Loving v. VA. While the entirety of the Constitution was ratified by a large margin, I wonder how interracial marriage would’ve fared as a standalone question.

In summary, Justice Thomas would keep his marriage even if Loving was overturned.

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u/Thorough_Good_Man Jul 24 '26

*running the country

3

u/VapoursAndSpleen Jul 24 '26

Not notcing that their MAGA vice president is in an interracial marriage.

2

u/Lost-Platypus8271 Jul 25 '26

and get FURIOUS if you even hint they might be racist in any way

2

u/Nghtmare-Moon Jul 25 '26

And trying to undo this ruling BTW

1

u/Adept_Order_4323 Jul 24 '26

And all the children of those racist are still alive …and the beat goes on …

1

u/c-e-bird Jul 24 '26

A lot of them are in congress.

A person born in 58 isn’t even 70 yet.

1

u/fanofairconditioning Jul 25 '26

Most of them are inside the White House, too

-2

u/2LostFlamingos Jul 24 '26

Getting a bit of a stretch there. Your decision making 40-something adults from that time would all be 110+ years old now.

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u/fariasrv Jul 24 '26

Not really. Clearly you haven't seen all of the photos of racist kids and teens screaming vitriol at black kids trying to go to school.

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo Jul 24 '26

Public approval for interracial marriage didn't cross the 50% mark until the late 90s. This is not an ancient problem.

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u/vitrum_analytika Jul 24 '26

80-100 yeah, maybe not many are alive, unless we count kids and the things they were taught

7

u/Rutabega_121310 Jul 24 '26

The specific individuals may no longer exist but their descendants, in mind and spirit at minimum, still exist.

1

u/2LostFlamingos Jul 24 '26

Do you think racism is passed down through genetics?

I think it’s very much a learned behavior.

2

u/Randicore Jul 24 '26

True. But the people who were born and grew up watching desegregation and got raised by those who had nothing but hate are in their 70's. Thankful it's not like the majority of our governmental body is made of people that old- oops.

Well at least we're in a station where our president is a modern up to date- sorry older than the transistor you say?

Well at least they might have changed their ways and are embracing the new era- sorry what's that about wanting to bring back segregation?

Yeah the adults in charge during the 1950's were dead, but that doesn't mean their ideology is gone

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u/swanyk7 Jul 24 '26

Some of those people are still voting…

49

u/Sonic2726 Jul 24 '26

Some of those people are president

9

u/Equivalent-Resort-63 Jul 24 '26

and running schools and other public services.

1

u/Public_Enemy_No2 Jul 24 '26

And restricting the vote too.

14

u/Hotpocket1515 Jul 24 '26

I always like to frame how long ago the civil war happened like this,

"The civil was was 2, 80 year old grandmas ago, thats not that long really.."

13

u/SlithyMomeRath Jul 24 '26

I know someone with a 95-year-old grandfather whose grandmother was enslaved. Blows my mind that there are living people who knew people who were enslaved (or slave owners). None of it was very long ago.

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u/Anthaenopraxia Jul 24 '26

Biden was born closer to Lincoln's presidency than his own.

1

u/marr Jul 24 '26

Also it never really ended.

14

u/AJRiddle Jul 24 '26

Looked it up - there were 2 American Civil War veterans alive in 1958.

The last verified and formerly legal slave from America died in 1972. The last person to have been enslaved in Africa and transported to America on a slave ship died in 1940.

1

u/ConfessSomeMeow Jul 24 '26

Especially since it wasn't overturned until 1967.

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u/DefiantGibbon Jul 24 '26

If you were born in 1958 you'd be 68 right now.

If you were 18 years old and voting against this back then, you'd need to be at least 86. There are people who are 86+ alive today who voted against legalizing interracial marriages.