Loving Privately, Loving Publicly

Mildred Loving, the wife in the couple who brought the case of Loving v. Virginia, in which the Supreme Court struck down laws prohibiting interracial marriages, recently passed away. In an "Editorial Observer" piece in The New York Times, Brent Staples reminds us of the ways in which intimately private concerns became the foundation for a monumental court decision that the plaintiffs would have as soon never had to endure.

[Hat Tip to my top-notch student, Mary, for the link. For a review of the best history of interracial marriage in the United States in the post-World War II era I humbly direct you here, and to my getting the stamp of approval from Harvard University Press here. (If they can use me to further them, I'll gladly use them to further me!)]