June is a month of many events: Fathers' Day, graduations, and marriage. Fifty-seven years ago on June 2, 1958, Richard Perry Loving married Mildred Delores Jeter in Washington, DC.

Richard and Mildred lived in Caroline County. They had gone to Washington, DC to marry because Richard was white and Mildred was black. They could not legally marry in Virginia. Virginia had laws prohibiting marriage across racial lines for hundreds of years; to do so was a felony. Richard and Mildred were neighbors and childhood sweethearts. Following their marriage, they returned to Caroline County where they expected to live quietly.

On July 13, Caroline County sheriff, Garnett Brooks entered their home in the middle of the night and asked Richard why he was in bed with a black woman. Richard explained that Mildred was his wife. Sheriff Garnett said that was not possible. Both Richard and Mildred were arrested and taken to jail. Richard was allowed to post bail and was released. Mildred was kept in jail for several days before being allowed to post bail.

Initially, the Lovings pleaded not guilty to unlawfully and feloniously going out of state for the purpose of being married and to returning to cohabit as if man and wife. Ultimately they changed their pleas, were fined and allowed to leave Virginia, as long as they promised not to return together for 25 years. Judge Leon M. Bazile suspended the sentence. The Lovings moved to Washington and had three children. They were not happy and longed to return to their country home in Caroline. When John Kennedy was elected president and Bobby Kennedy was appointed attorney general, Mildred sensed an opportunity. She wrote to Attorney General Kennedy asking him for help. Kennedy referred her to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). At this time, there was a young lawyer doing pro bono work for the ACLU, Bernard Cohen. Mr. Cohen took the case, by then several years old and well beyond the time which the conviction could be appealed. Except, Judge Bazile had suspended the sentence, the Lovings were still serving the 25 years and Judge Bazile retained jurisdiction over the case. There was an opening, Judge Bazile could be asked to vacate the conviction and set aside the sentence. Mr. Cohen cited violation of the equal protection clause under the Fourteenth Amendment.

The legal action began in Caroline County and progressed very slowly through the Virginia judicial system. In 1965, Judge Bazile sustained the conviction writing "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

At each level, the ruling judge waited until the last minute to issue a ruling. Finally the case went to the Virginia Supreme Court, which predictably upheld the lower court rulings against the Lovings. Finally in 1966 the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. On June 17, 1967, in a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that laws preventing people of different races from marrying were unconstitutional.

A young lawyer won a landmark case before the Supreme Court and the Lovings were free to return to live in Virginia. Richard and Mildred returned to Caroline County with their children. An automobile accident in 1975 killed Richard and left Mildred blind in one eye. Mildred died in 2008. One Loving child survives.

Bernard Cohen has retired from a successful career which included environmental law cases and is living in Spotsylvania with his wife. The Cohens visited the Heritage Center several years ago to see the case file, which includes the original arrest warrants. The Center holds the Loving case as part of Caroline County court records. Mr. Cohen was also the guest speaker at the Center's annual meeting last September.

On Valentine's Day 2012, HBO released a movie about the Lovings using film that was taken in the 1960s and the Loving's home movies. This film used in this project had been put on the shelf when network TV decided the topic was too controversial. In 2006, a documentary maker asked about the films. After some searching in a closet, the films were found. Another example of how things once forgotten can be rediscovered. One never knows what will be found in the attic or storage - treasures that could have been lost.

Recently, Governor McAuliffe announced that a movie will be made in Virginia about the Lovings and a New York documentary maker has contacted the Center about using documents in the file.