Film/TV Nov 16, 2016 at 4:00 am

Comments

1
You regressives would have preferred more white people to be shot and killed. Perhaps riots in New York City with Black Lives Matter chanting that they want dead cops and they want it now would suit your tastes?
2
#1: Are you ready to make the ultimate sacrifice yourself for your fuhrer? It's not like you're doing anything by being alive.
3
Movies have no obligation to be about the "time" they happen to come out in.
4
I haven't seen the movie, but saw the 2012 documentary. In their own words and gestures, you see Richard Loving as a shy, quiet man. His wife, Mildred, was the articulate one. When of their lawyers read the letter she sent to AG, Bobby Kennedy, her simple words resonate even now.

These were poor people. That part of Virgina (Central Point in Carolina County) is not the stuff of grand plantations and fox hunting. No southern aristocracy here. While segregation was the rule, daily life was not. Poor blacks and whites were generally equally ignored and they freely intermingled. There were mixed race families living in that area since the early 19th Century and they lived there quietly to avoid attention. People who passed for whites allowed themselves to be labeled as such to escape racist laws and treatment when they leave the community.

Their story was a love story and a story about a family who didn't want to live life in exile and desperately wanted to return to their Virginia home. It became a historical landmark more due to the circumstances than deliberate intent. They weren't provocateurs. They just wanted to be left alone.

It might be the reason why the movie seems dull. They didn't try to be heroes. It doesn't sound like either of them wanted to make Civil Rights history. They realized in order to stay married and raise their children among their close knit families, they couldn't stand on the sideline. They challenged the system, hung on and prevailed.

You can thank LIFE's Grey Villet for documenting their struggle and lives so poignantly.
5
I should add an interesting footnote. Mildred's daughter, Peggy Loving Fortune, admitted she checked Native American for race in the 2010 Census. But from her own words in various interviews, race is far more complicated than a checked box.
6
I don't know how anyone can look at such a sweet 'loving' couple and think they shouldn't be together.

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