LOVING

Focus Films
Rated PG-13
Director: Jeff Nichols
Starring: Ruth Negga, Joel Edgerton and Michael Shannon
Tickets and showtimes: drafthouse.com/show/loving
Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the
individual, and cannot be infringed by the State. - Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren
Director Jeff Nichols LOVING tells the true story of interracial couple Mildred and Richard Loving
who fell in love and were married in 1958. They grew up in a small town in Virginia that was more
integrated than surrounding areas in the American South. Yet it was the state of Virginia, where they
were making their home and starting a family, that first jailed and then banished them for violating the
states anti-miscegenation laws. This unassuming couple took their case to the Supreme Court with help
from the ACLU, setting a precedent in a landmark civil rights case.
We have thought about other people, but we are not doing it just because somebody had to do it
and we wanted to be the ones. We are doing it for us -- because we want to live here.
- Richard Loving, c. 1966

MORE INFORMATION
Audio transcripts of opening arguments in
Loving v. Virginia heard by the Supreme Court
in April 1967.
https://goo.gl/2HWUBu
LIFE magazine photos and article excerpts
https://goo.gl/FGbu9h

THE LOVING STORY Documentary (HBO)

https://goo.gl/HKHNl
THE LOVING STORY Teaching Guide - a detailed
study guide of the Loving v. Virginia court case.
https://goo.gl/2YxnFi

What is the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)?

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization whose stated
mission is to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this
country by the Constitution and laws of the United States. It works through litigation, lobbying, and
community empowerment.
https://www.aclu.org/about-aclu
Reflecting on Loving v. Virginia: https://www.aclu.org/blog/loving-reality-all
What is the Fourteenth Amendment?
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on July 9, 1868, and granted citizenship to
all persons born or naturalized in the United States, which included former slaves recently freed. In
addition, it forbids states from denying any person life, liberty or property, without due process of law
or to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. By directly mentioning
the role of the states, the Fourteenth Amendment greatly expanded the protection of civil rights to all
Americans and is cited in more litigation than any other amendment.
https://goo.gl/8rBjE5