Virginia Hasn't Always Been for Lovers: Interracial Marriage Bans and the Case of Richard and Mildred Loving

“Virginia Hasn’t Always Been for Lovers is quite correct to take the hypocrisy of this state to task. It was all right for white men to congress with black women, as long as the white men didn’t marry their dusky lovers. Richard and Mildred Loving challenged that hypocrisy. And brought a candle to the dark tower of race hatred. That Virginia is for loving. And there are next steps to be taken.”

―Nikki Giovanni, poet, Virginia Tech University

“Newbeck’s exploration of the antimiscegenation laws in America touches the very core of racial discrimination and race hatred in America: sexual intimacy between races. Using the Lovings as the tale-telling prism, she does an excellent job of illuminating the dreadful life―and happy death―of these racist laws and folkways.”―Howard Ball, author of Murder in Mississippi

A graduate of Barnard College and New York Law School, Phyl Newbeck is a licensed attorney and the director of the Vermont Teacher Diversity Scholarship Program.