When Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving married in 1958, they had to leave their native state of Virginia and marry in Washington, D.C.
Mildred, you see, was "colored", the name used for what we would call a black or African-American person today, and Richard was white. And in the state of Virginia in 1958, two people of different races could not marry. When they returned to Virginia, they were arrested, tried, and told they would either have to leave Virginia, or separate and serve a term in jail. They chose to move back to Washington, and for years could not even travel to Virginia together to visit their families.
In 1967, the Lovings' court case finally reached the US Supreme Court, which ruled that states could not stop people of different races from marrying.
Here is an article, with photos, about their story.
The Lovings moved back to Virginia and raised their three children. They lived happily together until Richard was killed in a car accident in 1975, only 41 years old.
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