Finding a Way Home: Mildred and Richard Loving and the Fight for Marriage Equality by Larry Dane Brimner (review)

When Richard Loving, who was white, wanted to marry Mildred Jeter, who was Black, in 1958, he knew their home state of Virginia, like most other American states, would not allow it, so they married legally across the border in Washington, D.C. When someone reported their union to the local authorities, they were charged with a crime, they pled guilty, and they were given a suspended sentence on the condition that they move out of state and never return together. Eventually, a pair of ACLU attorneys saw a chance to right a wrong (and advance their careers) by making the Lovings’ plight a test case before the United States Supreme Court, which had thus far never directly considered the Fourteenth Amendment as protective of interracial marriage. Here Brimner discusses the case and its legal intricacies as it made its years-long journey through the court system, to the 1967 decision that vindicated the Lovings. He then segues in final chapters to the impact Loving v. Virginia had on defending the right to non-heterosexual marriage, a separate but closely related battle that ultimately cited that precedent to secure marriage equality to couples regardless of gender. Readers may briefly wonder why, after the first chapters, so little attention is paid to the Lovings themselves, but in keeping the couple in the background, where they chose to be (they did not attend the Supreme Court session), Brimner respects the privacy they valued and allows their courageous doggedness to speak for itself. Black and white photographs, multimedia bibliographies, source notes, and an index are included.