The Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Loving v. Virginia making it illegal to ban interracial marriage.
In addition to being guilty of an
interracial marriage, Mildred and Richard Loving were also guilty of violation
of Virginia law of interracial couples marrying in another state (Wash DC) and
moving back to Virginia. Law enforcement stormed into their bedroom, shined lights in their eyes and hauled them off to jail. They were told they could avoid the one year in prison if they left the state and never returned. The couple decided to fight it and took it all the way to the Supreme Court.
Nine years later, the Supreme Court concluded that anti-miscegenation laws were racist and had been enacted to perpetuate white supremacy: “….The fact that Virginia prohibits only interracial marriages involving WHITE persons demonstrates that the racial classifications must stand on their own justification, as measures designed to maintain White Supremacy.”
Despite this Supreme Court ruling, such laws remained on the books, although unenforceable, in several states until 2000, when Alabama became the last state to repeal its law against mixed-race marriage.
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