Loving Day: A Global Community Honors Interracial Marriage While the World Continues to Reckon with Racial Inequality

NEW YORK, June 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- This year marks the 54th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court decision that struck down U.S. laws against interracial marriage. Loving Day commemorates the June 12th, 1967 anniversary of this civil rights landmark. Loving Day observances form the world's largest network of multiracial community events.

In 2020, during a period of COVID-19 lockdown, thousands of Americans commemorated Loving Day by sharing their stories and family photos online. #LovingDay trended #5 on Twitter with many high-profile politicians and celebrities calling out the day, including Vice-President Kamala Harris. #LovingDay also trended #3 in 2017.

Nearly 20% of Americans still believe that interracial marriages are morally wrong (YouGov poll 2018). Despite this, 13% of millennials are married to someone "of a different race or ethnicity" (Pew Research Center 2020), as well as one-in-six newlyweds (17%) overall are married to a person of a "different race or ethnicity" (Pew Research Center 2017). This is five times more than in 1967, the year of the Loving decision.

Thousands will observe Loving Day on or around June 12th in cities worldwide. As of this writing, 21 virtual and in-person events are planned with hosts based in 3 countries (United States, the Netherlands, and Austria) from organizations and institutions including the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco and the NAACP Merced County Branch. Additional events and private celebrations are expected.

The new LovingDay.org provides educational resources such as the story of Mildred and Richard Loving, the Supreme Court case arguments, state laws against interracial marriage (41 states states had them), and more resources about interracial relationships, multiracial families, mixed race people, transracially adopted people, and those with a similar lived experience.

About the Loving Day Project

Created in 2004, our mission is to steward a shared Loving Day tradition as a way to fight racism through education, create visibility, and build community. Our vision is to create an annual tradition that will make the Loving case a universally recognized civil rights landmark.

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SOURCE Loving Day