Principal in
Landmark Marriage Case Dies

Mildred Loving, who was a principal in the Supreme Court case that struck down laws against interracial marriage and who later spoke out for same-sex marriage rights, has died at age 68. Loving died of pneumonia Friday at her home in Central Point, Va., The New York Times reports.

Loving, who was black, had married a white man, Richard Loving, in 1958 in Washington, D.C. They returned to their home in Virginia, but that state, along with 15 others at the time, would not recognize their marriage. They were arrested and charged with violating Virginia's law against interracial unions. Under a plea bargain, they received suspended sentences and agreed to leave the state and not return, except separately, for 25 years. They moved to D.C., and in 1963, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, they sued the state of Virginia. Their case, Loving v. Virginia, eventually made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 1967 that Virginia's law and others like it violated the Constitution's equal protection clause. Last year, on the 40th anniversary of the decision, Mildred Loving issued a statement supporting marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Her survivors include a son and a daughter. Richard Loving was killed in an automobile accident in 1975, and another son died in 2000. (The Advocate)