THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9603290077
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
WHEN HE FIRST met Richard and Mildred Loving in 1962, and heard how they'd been run out of Virginia, attorney Bernard S. Cohen made an emotional little speech at the kitchen table in the couple's Washington, D.C., apartment.
``What they did to you, they cannot do,'' he said. ``The state law that prohibits interracial marriages is the last chain from the slave days. It cannot stand the test. The law will go down.''
And so it did.
Three years and eight months after Cohen, a young Alexandria lawyer volunteering for the American Civil Liberties Union, expressed his outrage, the Virginia law that prohibited interracial marriage was struck down in a 9-0 vote by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Going down with the law, as Cohen had predicted, were similar racist statutes in 18 other states. Sunday night at 8, Showtime revives that chapter of the civil rights movement in the film ``Mr. and Mrs. Loving.''
Timothy Hutton plays laborer Richard Loving, a white man living in Caroline County who in 1958 met, fell in love with and married Mildred Jeter, a young African-American woman. The couple was aware of the Virginia law. They exchanged vows in Washington, D.C.
Upon returning home to Caroline County as man and wife, the miscegenation law that seems so cruel by 1996 standards, reached into the Lovings' bedroom. The sheriff rousted them from their honeymoon bed and put Richard Loving in handcuffs. Before long, he was facing a judge.
Remain in Virginia and you go to jail for three years, the bridegroom was told. Leave and we'll forget the whole thing. The Lovings spent almost 20 years in exile, raising three children in the Washington, D.C., projects.
``It was a story that fascinated and bothered me,'' Hutton said not long ago in Los Angeles. ``I could not believe that this was a true story. Here was a man whose life was shaken to the roots by the simple act of falling in love with a woman.''
``Mr. and Mrs. Loving'' was also screened for Mildred Loving, Cohen and a select audience not long ago in Washington. Richard Loving died 21 years ago in an automobile accident, which left his wife blind in one eye. She lives in retirement in Caroline County and has declined all requests for interviews.
But she is generally pleased with writer-director Richard Friedenberg's film, Cohen said in a telephone interview. He, too, is happy with Showtime's treatment of the events leading up to the historic vote by the court, which was led by Chief Justice Earl Warren.
Cohen was only 33 when he argued the case. It's a glorious moment in ``Mr. and Mrs. Loving.'' The young lawyer, played by Corey Parker, recently married and fretting about a new mortgage, faces the nine men in black robes after devoting years to the Lovings' case.
``I don't see how reasonable men can conclude anything but that this law is a slavery law,'' he argues. ``In truth, the Virginia law still views the Negro race as a slave race. Equal protection under the law includes the right to marry any other human being, the right of Richard and Mildred Loving.''
Upon reading the script, Lela Rochon cried. She's the fine young actress from ``Waiting to Exhale'' who plays Mildred Jeter Loving.
``Her story touched my heart,'' Rochon said.
``Mr. and Mrs. Loving'' is not a documentary. It isn't even a docu-drama. Friedenberg has put a love story on the small screen against the background of the 1960s civil rights movement.
Hutton sees the Lovings as victims.
``When they fell in love and got married, they had no idea what was coming,'' he said. ``There was something heroic in what they did, in the path they chose.''
And chose reluctantly, the film shows. Cohen also brought out that fact when he talked about the Lovings.
``They were private and shy, plain and simple people who did not choose to be involved in civil rights battles, but did what they did so they could be left alone,'' Cohen said.
And finally that is how it was. The Lovings returned to Virginia in 1967 and were left alone to raise their children. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Showtime
Lela Rochon and Timothy Hutton star in "Mr and Mrs. Loving," the
story of an interracial couple who fought Virginia law and won.
by CNB