How much has changed 2: Mildred Loving

American citizen Mildred Loving has died. When she was a young woman, marriages between people of different races were illegal in the U.S. and South Africa. All the arguments that are used now against gay marriage were used against interracial marriage. It was unnatural. It would cause the breakdown of society. She broke the law in her state by marrying Richard Loving, who was officially “white” while she was officially “black.” Never mind that there’s no unique gene in either race. She and her husband were arrested and convicted. They appealed all the way to the Supreme Court and the laws were struck down as unconstitutional. She broke those laws to pieces!

Read the story at Pharygula: Mildred Loving has died.

Mildred Loving, a black woman whose challenge to Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling striking down such laws nationwide, has died, her daughter said Monday.

Peggy Fortune said Loving, 68, died Friday at her home in rural Milford. She did not disclose the cause of death.

I want (people) to remember her as being strong and brave yet humble — and believed in love,” Fortune told The Associated Press.

Loving and her white husband, Richard, changed history in 1967 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld their right to marry. The ruling struck down laws banning racially mixed marriages in at least 17 states.