What a ’60s Case on Mixed-Race Marriage Says About Today

The
parallels between the landmark 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia and the fight for
marriage equality today are undeniable. Forced to flee their home state of
Virginia and live in exile in Washington, D.C . — or risk being arrested again
for having violated the state’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924 — Mildred and
Richard Loving, a mixed-race couple, took the only route they could find to get
back home: through the courts.

“They
were in a community [in Virginia] that not only tolerated their marriage but
really fostered it,” attests filmmaker Nancy Buirski, a straight woman who is
well aware that many LGBT couples and families live in communities whose mores
may not be aligned with those of their states. “It reminds you what it means
for the state to step in and tell us what to do with our personal freedoms.”

When Sherre Toler resigned in early January as director of elections in North Carolina's Harnett County, she cited the case as her reason for taking a stand and what she'd learned from her own interracial relationship, saying she couldn't preside over marriage equality being put up for a vote via an upcoming ballot initiative.

And
yet The Loving Story, Buirski’s documentary about the case, which premieres February 14 on HBO, makes no mention of this resonance.

“The
relationship to gay marriage is there, and it’s intentional,” she says, “but
it’s kind of a Trojan horse issue.”

Such
subtlety runs counter to the style of many popular documentaries, with their Michael
Moore – like bombast. In fact, Buirski did pretty much the opposite: Over the
course of the narration-free film, she lets the Lovings and their lawyers speak for
themselves. Buirski accomplished this through footage she found that was shot
at the time and lay untouched in a closet for more than 40 years.

The
footage makes the Lovings’ struggle feel almost present-day — with perhaps one
exception: Being made to live outside of Virginia sounds like a not-bad punishment,
right? But, as Buirski points out, it was a different time.

“It was a very special place for them,” she
says of the Lovings’ community in Virginia, which they were eventually allowed
to return to. “They were not trying to be heroes, they were not activists. I
feel strongly that we need to honor people like that.”