Today is Valentine’s Day. Its the official day Americans tell each other how much we care about each other. So its rather befitting that today also marks the official premiere of HBO’s documentary, The Loving Story.
The intimate documentary follows Mildred & Richard Loving, an interracial couple from a small town in Virginia who fell in love and traveled to Washington, D.C. to be married in 1958.
Two weeks after their return, they were both arrested and convicted of the felony crime of miscegenation. In order to avoid a one-year jail sentence, the couple agreed to leave the state of Virginia and live in Washington, D.C.
Both homesick for their families and the rural home they left behind, Ms. Loving on the advice of a cousin wrote Attorney Gen. Robert F. Kennedy, who recommended she write to the Civil Liberties Union.
Almost nine years later in 1967, the Supreme Court entered a decision on Loving v. Virginia in favor of the Lovings. The decision led to sixteen states being ordered to overturn their bans on interracial marriage.
Tonight’s documentary will feature 9mm film taken by a young woman who’d stayed with the Lovings for a week. In the same vein as reality TV, the filmmaker sorted of blended into the background and filmed the Lovings going about their daily lives. She grew so close to them, she gave them all the film.
The same altruism occured with a freelance photographer who followed the couple during the height of their case. He published some of his photos, but most of them, including the proofs, he left with the Lovings.
The Loving Story will air tonight at 9pm ET on HBO.
