If Loving Is Wrong

Photo Courtsey Of Erin Benach 

I’ve had several friends, family members, staff at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and even a lawyer, yes, Michael Klarman, explain the complicated framework of segregation and Jim Crow laws that shaped the American South before the Civil Rights Movement. While the North had its own forms of discrimination and social barriers, the distinction was often described this way: "You could be high but not close," whereas in the South, "you could be close but not high." Black and white communities in the former Confederate states, both before and after the Civil War, often lived in close proximity, creating a different set of social boundaries and unwritten rules.

The expectation was clear: coexist, but never cross certain lines. Be neighbors, but do not marry. Share the same towns, but remain separated by custom and law.

It is within this tense environment that Mildred Jeter (Ruth Negga) and Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton) find themselves in the true-life drama "Loving" (2016). In 1958, the couple traveled to Washington, D.C., to marry, fully aware that they were violating Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act. Shortly after returning home, the newlyweds were arrested and faced a possible 25-year prison sentence for their decision to be together.

With Mildred pregnant, the couple was given a conditional reprieve when the judge suspended their sentence but ordered them to leave Virginia. The birthplace of their first child became the setting for another act of defiance, one that would eventually contribute to a historic legal challenge.

Written and directed by Jeff Nichols, "Loving" is a remarkably restrained film that carries its emotional weight through silence rather than spectacle. The cruelty, fear, and determination are conveyed through subtle expressions, quiet moments, and the characters’ restrained interactions, including those of the opposition. In one scene at the county jail, Sheriff Brooks, played by Martin Csokas, almost attempts to rationalize the Lovings’ situation by suggesting his father’s beliefs shaped his own understanding of the world.

But inherited beliefs do not erase personal responsibility. Brooks remains a segregationist, regardless of where those views originated.

"Divorce her?" Richard Loving questions when someone tells him that, unlike his Black counterparts, he has an easier path out of his situation.

"Tell the judge I love my wife."

Richard was right.