Richard and Mildred Loving, a white man and a black woman who married in 1960s America, an America where black rights activists were often assassinated (Medgar Evers in 1963, Malcolm X in 1965, Martin Luther King in 1968, to name a few).
In 1958, 18-year-old Mildred became pregnant with Richard, and the two went to Washington to get married, evading Virginia state laws that prohibited mixed marriages. However, when they returned to their home in Central Point, Virginia, the Lovings immediately ran into problems: an anonymous call reported the couple, and the local police broke into their home in the middle of the night, hoping to catch the two during sexual intercourse (according to Virginia state law, sexual intercourse between people of different “races” was also a crime); The Lovings were sleeping, Mildred showed the police officers their marriage certificate, but the couple was tried anyway (Loving vs Virginia case). The Supreme Court unanimously declared the old 1924 law that prohibited mixed marriages unconstitutional and the Lovings won the case, paving the way for many other mixed couples in the following years. The Lovings had three children. Richard died at 41 in 1975, hit by a drunk truck driver; in the same accident Mildred lost her right eye, but survived and died at 68 in 2008. June 12, the anniversary of the historic 1967 ruling that sanctioned the validity of the marriage between Richard and Mildred, is still celebrated today as Loving Day.