In honor of Loving Day this month – June 12th – I wanted to take an opportunity to briefly highlight a specific milestone in American civil rights history I am grateful for. It is also the basis of one of my favorite movies, Loving. While the US Civil Rights movement of the 20th century has iconic stories, people and milestones many of us might be aware of, the lesser told stories and the people behind them from this historic era are worth considering as we reflect on where we are as a society today.

Loving is based on the real story of Richard and Mildred Loving, and focuses on their marriage and how it became a landmark US Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia. The ruling on this case on June 12th, 1967 deemed anti-miscegenation laws primarily were set up to discriminate against African Americans as unconstitutional. 

The movie is quite refreshing compared to many other “based on real life” Hollywood movies, as it is particularly personal and intentionally authentic, letting the story of the couple speak for itself and having an almost understated quality to it. The script for the movie is quite lean, allowing the gravity of this story’s setting to exude without too much exposition. Interestingly, also, neither of the lead actors are Americans, with the actors playing Mildred Loving (Ruth Negga) being Irish and Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton) being Australian. 

I also learned that the movie is available to stream on Netflix (as of June 2024, this is no longer the case). I have a copy of it on Blu-Ray and DVD if you’d like to borrow it, if you’re local. Of course, generally, there’s more to explore in stories like these beyond the movies, as true history is complex. But I like to celebrate works like these, as it makes these stories like this more accessible to a wider audience. If documentaries are more your taste, I learned that the 2012 documentary The Loving Story on HBO served as inspiration for the creation of this film. I’m looking forward to watching it soon myself. 

If you decide to give either a watch sometime, I’d be happy to hear your impressions.