Aptly Named Film ‘Loving’ Reminds Nation Of What Is Important

FEATURING STEPHANIE ABRAHAM – Just days before the general election, a new feature film by director Jeff Nichols focused on a somewhat forgotten moment in American history that seems more relevant now than ever before. ‘Loving,’ named for Richard and Mildred Loving, is the story of a rural Virginia couple who wanted to be allowed to marry legally.

Richard, a white man, married Mildred, a black woman, but because of so-called “anti-miscegenation” laws in Virginia (and other states) their marriage was not recognized and the couple were arrested multiple times.

But the civil rights movement came into full force at the same time, and a lawsuit led by the ACLU on the Loving’s case went all the way to the Supreme Court which eventually struck down all “anti-miscegenation” laws as unconstitutional.

The film Loving is still in theaters.

Stephanie Abraham is a writer and media critic, she helped found the feminist magazine make/shift and was the founding editor of the feminist magazine LOUDmouth. Her works have been published in McSweeney’s, Al Jazeera, Mizna and Bitch Magazine. She is the Pop Culture Correspondent and Film Critic for Rising Up With Sonali.