The historical marker honoring Mildred and Richard Loving is just south of the Bowling Green jail, where the couple was held 60 years ago for violating Virginia’s law against interracial marriage.
To the east is the Caroline County home Richard Loving built for his family.
And the marker lies about 40 miles north of the former site of the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, which ruled against the Lovings’ motion to vacate their conviction of entering into an interracial marriage. That temporary setback led to the landmark 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing interracial marriage in the case of Loving v. Virginia.
“This is the triangulation of their whole struggle, and that’s why we’re right here,” Caroline Supervisor Floyd Thomas said Saturday during the ceremonial unveiling of the marker on U.S. 301 near Sparta Road.
Peggy Loving Fortune, a daughter of Mildred and Richard Loving, was the guest of honor at the event, held on the 60th anniversary of her parents’ marriage on June 2, 1958. “I want to give honor to my Lord and savior, and I want to thank Him for my parents,” she said in brief remarks. “They got married, not knowing their life would change, but it changed for the better.”
Most of the dedication’s dozens of attendees—including a grandson and several great-grandchildren of Mildred and Richard Loving—arrived on two buses, while Caroline deputies and state troopers directed traffic.
Julie Langan of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources read a letter to Peggy Loving Fortune from Gov. Ralph Northam, who wrote that he could not be at the event because of a prior commitment. The governor described the marker dedication as a meaningful and proud moment for Virginia, writing that he is grateful to Richard and Mildred Loving for “their conviction, love and determination.”
“What they did in the face of discrimination, racism and adversity helped lead to a better, more inclusive Virginia,” Northam wrote.
Richard Loving died in 1975 after a drunk driver struck his vehicle. Mildred Loving passed away in 2008.
The marker describes the couple as being of “different racial backgrounds,” adding that they returned to Caroline’s Central Point after marrying in Washington.
The Virginia Department of Historic Resources originally planned to dedicate a marker for the Lovings in Caroline on June 12, 2017, the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision.
But it was placed in Richmond instead after Mark Loving, one of Mildred Loving’s grandsons, objected to text—which was subsequently changed—describing his grandmother as black and Native American. He said she identified as Native American, though Mildred Loving did describe herself as “part negro and part Indian” in a 1963 letter to then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
But the controversy did not come up during Saturday’s event, which focused on the inarguable legacy of Mildred and Richard Loving.
The Rev. Duane Fields of Caroline said during a prayer that the marker has been a long time coming for the trailblazing couple. “We thank you today, God, that you gave them the fortitude and strength to not just initiate the fight but to see the fight through,” he said.