The Case for Loving ─ The Fight for Interracial Marriage

"I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about." -- Mildred Loving, June 12, 2007

For most children these days it would come as a great shock to know that before 1967, they could not marry a person of a race different from their own. That was the year that the Supreme Court issued its decision in Loving v. Virginia.

This is the story of one brave family: Mildred Loving, Richard Perry Loving, and their three children. It is the story of how Mildred and Richard fell in love, and got married in Washington, D.C. But when they moved back to their hometown in Virginia, they were arrested (in dramatic fashion) for violating that state's laws against interracial marriage. The Lovings refused to allow their children to get the message that their parents' love was wrong and so they fought the unfair law, taking their case all the way to the Supreme Court - and won!

Selina Alko is the author and illustrator of several acclaimed books for children, including DADDY CHRISTMAS & HANUKKAH MAMA and B IS FOR BROOKLYN. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband - illustrator Sean Qualls - and their two children.

Sean Qualls has illustrated many celebrated books for children, including GIANT STEPS TO CHANGE THE WORLD by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, LITTLE CLOUD AND LADY WIND by Toni Morrison and her son Slade, DIZZY by Jonah Winter, and BEFORE JOHN WAS A JAZZ GIANT by Carole Boston Weatherford, for which Sean received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Selina Alko - also an author/illustrator - and their two children.