Couple's quiet devotion still resounds today as human right

They didn't set out to be activists.

Richard and Mildred Loving had a simple desire in 1958 to live as husband and wife, in the Virginia community where they had grown up. And it made them criminals.

The couple's love story comes across, in an understated way, in the new documentary premiering tonight on HBO.

Richard was white; Mildred was black and Native American. And more than a dozen states, including Virginia, banned interracial marriage at the time. The Lovings pleaded guilty to a felony charge and were ordered to leave the state.

HBO and Cox Communications hosted a screening of "The Loving Story" late last week at the Attucks Theatre in Norfolk. I was among more than 550 people in the audience.

The documentary's widespread release on Valentine's Day is appropriate. The hourlong film is more of a love story than a civil-rights saga. Richard and Mildred didn't necessarily shun the spotlight, but you get the impression they just wanted to be left in peace.

Virginians already know how the Caroline County couple helped overturn anti-miscegenation laws nationwide. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision in 1967, ruled in favor of the Lovings. The justices noted: "There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause" of the 14th Amendment.

Still, the documentary will probably be a revelation to many Americans. They may be shocked to learn that, fewer than two generations ago, so many states banned marriage between the races.

Or that detractors compared miscegenation to incest and polygamy.

Producers acquired vintage footage from a filmmaker who had covered the Lovings and their attorneys during the lengthy legal battle. The late couple's surviving daughter, Peggy, also turned over 90 photos taken by a Life magazine photographer during that period.

Those images show the Lovings and their three young children trying to be a family - no more, no less.

In one scene, Mildred, with her slender frame, dutifully puts socks on young Peggy's feet, as Richard tends to a fire in a stove.

In a photo, Richard stretches out on a couch, laying his head in Mildred's lap; she leans her arm on him. Many couples can relate to that end-of-the-day, blissful closeness.

Yes, the two speak of their determination, as when Richard Loving notes, "I'm not going to divorce her," or his wife says wistfully, "I just wanted to go back home."

More than militancy, however, is the portrayal of how devoted they were to each other. They're together at drag races. One photo shows them kissing tenderly.

Their quiet defiance was a catalyst to people marrying whom they wish - without interference from government.

In 1970, fewer than 1 percent of all U.S. marriages were interracial. By 2008, that figure had grown to 8 percent, and 14.6 percent of new marriages that year were interracial, the Pew Research Center found.

Those couples can thank the Lovings for making that act a right - not a crime.

Pilot writer Meghan Hoyer contributed to this column.

Roger Chesley, 757-446-2329, roger.chesley@pilotonline.com, pilotonline.com/chesley