Decision page, initialed “EW”, by Earl Warren, June 12, 1967

In June 1958, Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, who identified as black and Native American, quietly married in Washington, DC. They returned home to Virginia and woke up one morning with policemen in their bedroom. The Lovings were arrested for violating the Racial Integrity Act of 1924.

Richard and Mildred were found guilty and sentenced to one year in jail, or they could accept a plea bargain and leave Virginia. So they left. But by 1963, tired of visiting family and friends separately, they sought legal help. Attorneys Bernard S. Cohen and Philip J. Hirschkopf took their case to the Virginia Court of Appeals, where Judge Leon Bazile upheld the lower court’s ruling. The case was sent to the United States Supreme Court.

On June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court justices voted unanimously in favor of the Lovings. They ruled Virginia’s law violated the equal protection clause in the 14th amendment.

After the Supreme Court ruling, the Lovings returned to Virginia.

National Archives, Records of the Supreme Court of the United States