It’s beLOVED author interview day over at Bookslut, it’s Bookshelves’O’Doom’s most beLOVED MG novel cover of the year (thus far) (but you’ve SERIOUSLY gotta LOVE a girl named Moxy), and it’s a LOVEfest for that thing that is literature, as Chasing Ray’s Summer Blog Tour Blast will attest.
The real reason for all the hearts today is that it’s a holiday – yes, Hallmark didn’t announce it, so you may not have known, but it is LOVING DAY – the day of a landmark anti-miscegenation case in which that ugly law was struck down in Virginia in 1967.
Ms. Mildred Jeter (an African American lady) and Mr. Richard Perry Loving (a Caucasian gentleman) were residents of Virginia who married in June of 1958 in Washington DC, leaving Virginia to evade a state law banning marriages between any white person and a non-white person. When they returned home, they were charged with violation of the ban, pleaded guilty, and were sentenced to one year in prison, with the sentence suspended for 25 years on condition that the couple leave the state of Virginia. They left… but they decided not to leave it at that, and that is why today we celebrate people’s rights to love anyone they choose.
It is a delicious irony that the name ‘Loving’ came into play here, and it’s simply too good to pass up! So, here are my little LOVing shout-outs: to Fuse, who is now Expert Professional Librarian School Library Journal Blogger Extraordinary, and we’re so proud to say we “knew her when;” to Mitali, on her redesigned blog and her to Sparrow on the event of her Blog Tour – whoo hoo! And finally, to another School Library Journal blogger, Diane Chen, with thanks for blogging about the upcoming Summer Blog Blast Tour! You can look forward to hearing more about this great fabulousness later on!
For now, I know it’s gonna be… a LOVEly day.
Thanks for the LOVE, TadMack! You’re too kind. And it truly is a day to remember, especially for those of us who have merrily miscegenated and plan to stay that way. Hmmmm … I wonder if that Ms. Jeter was related to handsome Mr. Yankee Jeter.
Wouldn’t that be a kick if Mr. Yankee Cuteness was related?! I wonder…
All you need is love. 🙂
Prompted by this post, I scooted over to Wikipedia to look up this case. There, I was shocked to find that Alabama did not remove its law against mixed-race marriage until the year 2000.
!!!!!!!!
I can’t believe that there are still laws in place that prevent people who love each other from celebrating that love nd getting married just because they are the same gender or different races, yet some places say it’s perfectly legal to marry your house (yes, people have done that) or equally strange laws/permits. That is outrageous.
Thanks for the kind words about the new design at Mitali’s site!
Oh, hey! I didn’t know Mitali’s new site was your design! How cool are you!? It’s really a very clean, modern look, yet retains that fire-escape touch. Nicely done!
And yeah — that Alabama thing: quel scary. This is me not going to visit.
Thank ye! 🙂 Speaking of which, I replied to your email last week – just making sure that you got it.
Yay, I did hear about Loving Day on NPR…If those types of laws hadn’t been struck down, I might never have been born… Fortunately, I was born in California, WAY after 1948 when our anti-miscegenation law was ruled unconstitutional!