PRINTER'S NO. 3867
No. 777 Session of 2008
INTRODUCED BY JOSEPHS, BEYER, CALTAGIRONE, COHEN, CONKLIN,
FRANKEL, GALLOWAY, GEORGE, HARHART, HENNESSEY, JAMES, KORTZ,
MAHONEY, MANDERINO, MANN, MURT, PALLONE, PAYTON, RAMALEY,
RAPP, READSHAW, SAYLOR, SIPTROTH, K. SMITH, THOMAS, J. WHITE,
YOUNGBLOOD AND ROEBUCK, JUNE 6, 2008
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, JUNE 6, 2008
A RESOLUTION
1 Remembering Mildred Jeter Loving of Central Point, Virginia,
2 whose personal quest for legal recognition of her interracial
3 marriage secured marriage rights for all Americans regardless
4 of race.
5 WHEREAS, Mrs. Loving passed away May 2, 2008, at 68 years of
6 age; and
7 WHEREAS, Mrs. Loving stated in 1967 that "marrying who you
8 want is a right no man should having anything to do with"; and
9 WHEREAS, The Commonwealth of Virginia's 1924 Racial Integrity
10 Act prohibited marriage between whites and nonwhites; and
11 WHEREAS, Mrs. Loving's racial classification in the
12 Commonwealth of Virginia was based on her African and Cherokee
13 descent; and
14 WHEREAS, Married to Richard Loving in 1958 in Washington, DC,
15 Mrs. Loving was arrested, convicted and banished from her rural
16 Virginia home that same year; and
17 WHEREAS, Mrs. Loving was ordered, in lieu of prison, not to
1 return to Virginia with her husband for 25 years; and
2 WHEREAS, In 1963 Mrs. Loving wrote from her home in
3 Washington, DC, to United States Attorney General Robert F.
4 Kennedy, asking if proposed civil rights legislation would
5 enable her to return to Virginia; and
6 WHEREAS, Bernard Cohen, a Virginia attorney affiliated with
7 the American Civil Liberties Union, represented the Lovings in
8 various filings, beginning with a motion to vacate judgment in
9 November 1963; and
10 WHEREAS, On June 12, 1967, Chief Justice Earl Warren
11 delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States
12 in the case of Loving v. Virginia; and
13 WHEREAS, At a time when 16 states prohibited interracial
14 marriage, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Virginia
15 statute prohibiting the marriage of whites and nonwhites
16 violated the equal protection and due process clauses of the
17 Constitution of the United States; and
18 WHEREAS, Richard Loving died in 1975; and
19 WHEREAS, Mrs. Loving released a statement on June 12, 2007,
20 the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, in support of same-
21 sex marriage; and
22 WHEREAS, Reflecting on her own "freedom to marry the person
23 precious to me," Mrs. Loving's statement asserted:
24 I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no
25 matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation,
26 should have that same freedom;
27 therefore be it
28 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the
29 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania remember Mildred Jeter Loving of
30 Central Point, Virginia, whose personal quest for legal
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1 recognition of her interracial marriage secured marriage rights
2 for all Americans regardless of race; and be it further
3 RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to
4 the family of Mildred Jeter Loving in care of her daughter,
5 Peggy Fortune, of Milford, Virginia.
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