They did and they won. Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving won the right to be married and with them so did every interracial couple in the United States !

But it wasn’t easy and it took 9 years before the Loving v. Virginia case won by a 9-0 Supreme Court vote, ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States. This was in in 1967.

It is not a very publicized case but the story is inspiring. So when Ken Tanabe, a graphic designer, accidentally discovered the Loving case while Googling something else, he was shocked that no one evert taught him about the case and that no one his age seem to know about it.

Being of interracial, intercultural, and international heritage himself, he started the Loving Day as a graduate thesis project while at Parsons the New School for Design. Since then Loving Day has a group of dedicated volunteer who plan events  – Mark your calendars for June 12th-, provide resources for interracial couples and well are celebrates this memorable event.

Remembering that your parents were awesome is one thing , another thing to remember is that the right to be married was not if you were of two different races in 1967. Check out the legal map of the US states and applaud on what has been gained in 1967.