Review: The Case For Loving: The Fight For Interracial Marriage

I read The Case For Loving: The Fight For Interracial Marriage, by Selina Alko. It is about the right to marry someone from a different race.

A long time ago, people weren’t allowed to marry people who were a different race than them. But thanks to a Supreme Court case, anyone can now marry anyone they want!

In the book, Richard and Mildred were not allowed to marry each other in Virginia where they lived because he was white and she was black, so they married in Washington, D.C.  Even when they were married, they were sent to jail for living together in Virginia. So they moved to Washington, D.C. and had a family. But they did not like it in their new home, and they didn’t think it was fair that they couldn’t be together in the place they wanted. So the couple made a court case that people should be able to marry whomever they wanted, no matter the race.

Today is the anniversary of the court decision. People recognize this day as Loving Day.  I thought it was because of “love” but it is actually because the couple’s last name was Loving.  I thought they chose their last name, but no. The man was born with the name.

I am glad their case won because, if it didn’t, I would either not be born or have a different dad or look differently than I do. I am biracial. That means I have more than one race in my family. A couple years ago my family attended a Loving Day celebration with a lot of people who were married to someone of a different race. This book made me think that the law allowing interracial marriage helped there to be more diversity in families.

I liked this book because it makes me happy that now anyone can marry anyone. I also liked it because it proves that people can fight for change.

The author, Selina Alko, also is one of the illustrators of the book. The other is Sean Qualls, who illustrated Emmanuel’s Dream, that I recently reviewed. The illustrators are married and also interracial, just like the Loving family. I think they wrote and illustrated this book because they believe what the Lovings believed: People should be able to marry anyone they choose.

I give this book 4/4 roses.