In 1965, only four percent of Americans approved of marriage between the races. Richard Loving, a white man, and his wife, Mildred, a woman of African American and Native American descent, were married in 1958 in Washington, D.C., but their marriage was illegal in their home state of Virginia, where they chose to live. They were found guilty of violating Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law and banished from their home. The American Civil Liberties Union brought their case to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1966 and the following year, the court unanimously declared Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924 unconstitutional and ended all race-based marriage bans in the U.S.
This shy, non-political couple never planned on becoming the center of a Supreme Court case. A new exhibition at the International Center of Photography, The Loving Story: Photographs by Grey Villet, focuses not on the politics but on the love shared by the Richard and Mildred Loving, capturing them in intimate and emotional moments.
Villet, born in South Africa, met the Lovings when, on assignment for Life Magazine, he traveled to Virginia in1965, to photograph them. The ICP show, organized by Assistant Curator of Collections Erin Barnett, includes some twenty vintage prints drawn from Villet’s estate and the Loving family. Also present at the exhibit’s opening was veteran photo editor and filmmaker Nancy Buirski whose HBO documentary The Loving Story will debut on February 14, 2012. (Read Woman Around Town’s review).
Villet’s photographs show the Lovings’s dedication to each other and their family, and their daily life in the Virginia countryside that they cherished so much they refused to leave. Both families lived in Virginia for generations, even during the Jim Crow era. Their town was known for friendly relations between the races and there were many mixed-race residents.
Villet, who died in 2000, created some of Life Magazine’s most memorable photo essays during his seventeen-year tenure. He and his wife, the writer Barbara Cummiskey Villet, who was on hand for the opening, collaborated on some of the finest in-depth stories ever to appear in the magazine, including The Lash of Success (1961), a look at one man’s journey to wealth and success, and a year-long investigation of the Levi Smith family of Vermont, which ran in fifty pages’ worth of installments (1966). The Villets also published two books: Those Whom God Chooses (New York: Viking Press, 1966) and Blood River (New York: Everest House, 1982).
“Villet’s intimate access to the Lovings and his tender images show us a side of the couple and their three children the monumental case could not. In fighting for their right to life as husband and wife in their home state, the Lovings, who were not active in the Civil Rights movement, changed American culture and politics. As marriage equality gains support and the first mixed-race U.S. president finishes his first term, the case continues to have relevance,” said Barnett.
This exhibition was made possible with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Photos from top:
1 Grey Villet, [Richard and Mildred Loving with their children Peggy, Donald, and Sidney in their living room, King and Queen County, Virginia], April 1965. © Estate of Grey Villet.
2 Grey Villet, [Mildred Loving greeting her husband Richard on their front porch, King and Queen County, Virginia], April 1965. © Estate of Grey Villet.
3 Grey Villet, [Richard and Mildred Loving sitting in open door of car celebrating Richard’s winning race, Sumerduck dragway, Sumerduck, Virginia], April 1965. © Estate of Grey Villet.
The Lovings: Portraits of Their Love
International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas
