- Jocelyn T.
- Thursday, June 23, 2022
"Tell the court I love my wife...."
- Richard Loving, 1967
To some, 1967 seems like it was so long ago, but that was only fifty-four years ago. Only fifty-four years ago, Richard and Mildred Loving were fighting the state of Virginia to recognize their marriage. Only fifty-four years ago, two people (who just happened to be different races) had to fight to legally show their love to the world.
Before their famous court case, the Lovings had gotten married in Washington, D.C. (where interracial marriage was legal) and then started a family in Virginia, which like sixteen other U.S. states, prohibited interracial marriage. One night, Mildred and Richard were woken by police and taken to jail, simply for being married. After being released, the two took their three children and moved to Washington, D.C., in hopes of freely raising their family, however, they soon found that they were homesick and wanted to be closer to their family and friends in Virginia. That is when they decided to challenge the Virginia court and won, leading to interracial marriage being legalized everywhere in the United States. This changed everything for the Lovings and their families, but it also changed everything for other couples and families like them.
Author Selina Alko, a Jewish Canadian woman, and illustrator Sean Qualls, a Black man from New Jersey, collaborated on the children's book The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage, and they, too, are in an interracial marriage. In their book, they share the Loving's journey with words and with images that show youth what the Lovings' battle entailed and what the world looked like at that time. Alko takes meaningful thoughts, themes, and quotes and peppers them throughout the pages of the book, to capture the heart and mind of the reader. Qualls cleverly pairs drawings of Mildred and Richard together on the same page when they are together, and separates them by the binding of the book when they are both separated in jail. Another image of a Black family and a white family shows how the world is segregated, by again using the binding of the book to separate the two families. The hopes and dreams of love and equality consistently fly through the air with images of colorful hearts, butterflies, and flowers, but these images are especially bold toward the end of the story. The book concludes with information about both the Lovings and Selina Alko and Sean Qualls.
This beautiful book not only shares the moment in history that led to the recognition of the Lovings' marriage and their love but also to other interracial couples being able to freely celebrate their love. Couples like Alko and Qualls to even couples like my husband and me can also love freely.
The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage
Selina Alko; Sean Qualls
New York, NY: Arthur A. Levine Books; Illustrated edition [2015]
Formats: Book, Audiobook, eBook, eAudio
#OwnVoices at Richland Library is a way for African American staff to provide thoughtful and well written book reviews, book lists and blog posts to promote African American authors and their work about the African American experience. The series invites our customers to learn one more way we are continuing the conversation in our community and speaking our voice. Find more resources on race, equity and inclusion, here.