The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) hosted a screening of The Loving Story, directed by Nancy Buirski, in the United States Capital Visitor’s Center on Monday, June 13, 2011, 44 years after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision was announced in Loving v. Virginia.
The Loving Story is a beautiful documentary on the story of Mildred and Richard Loving, an interracial couple, who were married in Washington, D.C. in 1958 and then returned to their home in Caroline County, Virginia. Upon their return, they were jailed, tried, and convicted of breaking the state’s anti-miscegenation laws. To avoid jail time, they were told to leave the state of Virginia. It took them nine years to legally return home.
Nancy Buirski, in her debut film, has done a wonderful job capturing the love and life of the Lovings. Her film used Hope Ryden’s footage that had been filmed during the State and Supreme Court trials in the 1960s. Also included were images from the Loving’s home and family life. These reels depicted the strength of Mildred Loving and showed the adoration Richard Loving had for his wife. Buirski stated that this was a story about love and that was the story she wanted to tell.
During the 1950s and 1960s, segregation was heavily ingrained in the culture of the United States, especially in the south. Children attended different schools and families attended different churches. But the Lovings stated that everyone was treated with respect where they lived, that though they were different, they believed everyone to be equal. Mildred Loving stated that she was unaware of a law that prevented her, a black woman, from legally marrying Richard, a white man.
The Lovings weren’t looking to be icons in the Civil Rights movement. They were simple people with a simple request, to be able to love one another in their own home, close to their family on the land Richard’s father had given them.
In addition to the footage, the film also included photographs taken by Life Magazine during the 1960s. Though only five had ever been published just before the verdict in Loving v. Virginia was announced, these images were displayed throughout the movie. By the end of the film, after learning that the Lovings were only able spend eight years together after returning to Virginia because Richard Loving’s life was cut short by a drunk driver, there was not a dry eye in the theater.
“The wheels of justice grind slowly,” Bernard Cohen, one of the Loving’s attorneys, reminded us in the film. Though the Supreme Court ruled anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional in 1967, it wasn’t until 2000 that Alabama amended its Constitution to reflect this ruling.
After the film, four panelists, Representative Robert Scott (D-VA), Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Philip Hirschkop and Nancy Buirski spoke on the meaning of the film for the current fight regarding marriage equality as well as the journey they each went on as they got to know the Lovings, either through film, family members or personal experiences.
Representative Nadler explained that throughout the history of the Unites States, we have been expanding upon the definition “that all men are created equal,” as taken from the Declaration of Independence. This includes Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, GLBT rights and the rights of those with disabilities.
“The path to liberty and justice for all is a path we’ve yet to complete,” Walter Dellinger, a former U.S. Solicitor General, said during the opening remarks of the program.
Buirski explained that, “the goal of this film was empathy.” She went on to say that, “people, even reluctantly, can change society. [The Lovings] didn’t set out to [change society], but they did.”
The Loving Story was shown during the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in April 2011 and will be shown at the Silverdocs Film Festival in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. from June 20 through the 26. It will officially be released in February, 2012, on HBO.
