Loving v. Virginia in a Post-Racial World
Rethinking Race, Sex, and Marriage

This book takes a critical approach to the US Supreme Court ruling in Loving v. Virginia.

Kevin Noble Maillard (Edited by), Rose Cuison Villazor (Edited by)

9780521147989, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 June 2012

288 pages
22.9 x 15.1 x 1.6 cm, 0.38 kg

"Loving v. Virginia in a Post-Racial World is an impressive collection of riveting essays that illuminate and elaborate Loving's position in American culture, history, and law. The essays reflect on Loving's formidable legacy, but importantly, go beyond it, pushing us to consider what this landmark decision has meant and could mean going forward. Thoughtfully structured and wide-ranging in its coverage of the legal regulation of intimacy before and after Loving, this volume will be an important resource of scholars and others wishing to engage the important question of how law shapes--or does not shape--the ways we live and love."

- Melissa Murray
Professor of Law
University of California at Berkeley School of Law

In 1967, the US Supreme Court ruled that laws prohibiting interracial marriage were unconstitutional in Loving v. Virginia. Although this case promotes marital freedom and racial equality, there are still significant legal and social barriers to the free formation of intimate relationships. Marriage continues to be the sole measure of commitment, mixed relationships continue to be rare, and same-sex marriage is only legal in 6 out of 50 states. Most discussion of Loving celebrates the symbolic dismantling of marital discrimination. This book, however, takes a more critical approach to ask how Loving has influenced the 'loving' of America. How far have we come since then and what effect did the case have on individual lives?

Introduction Kevin Noble Maillard and Rose Cuison Villazor
Part I. Explaining Loving vs. Virginia: 1. The legacy of Loving John DeWitt Gregory and Joanna L. Grossman
Part II. Historical Antecedents to Loving: 2. The 'love' of Loving Jason A. Gillmer
3. Loving in Indian territory: tribal miscegenation law in historical perspective Carla Pratt
4. American mestizo: Filipinos and antimiscegenation laws in California Leti Volpp
5. Perez vs. Sharp and the limits of Loving: race, marriage, and citizenship reconsidered R. A. Lenhardt
Part III. Loving and Interracial Relationships: Contemporary Challenges: 6. The road to Loving: the legacy of antimiscegenation law Kevin Noble Maillard
7. Love at the margins: the racialization of sex and the sexualization of race Camille A. Nelson
8. The crime of Loving: Loving, Lawrence, and beyond I. Bennett Capers
9. What's Loving got to do with it? Law shaping experience and experience shaping law Renée M. Landers
10. Fear of a 'Brown' planet or a new hybrid culture? Jacquelyn Bridgeman
Part IV. Considering the Limits of Loving: 11. Black pluralism in post-Loving America Taunya Lovell Banks
12. Political blackness: a sociopolitical construction Angelique Davis
13. Finding a Loving home Angela Onwuachi-Willig and Jacob Willig-Onwuachi
Part V. Loving outside the United States Borders: 14. Racially inadmissible wives Rose Cuison Villazor
15. Flying buttresses Nancy K. Ota
16. Crossing borders: Loving vs. Virginia as a story of migration Victor Romero
Part VI. Loving and Beyond: Marriage, Intimacy and Diverse Relationships: 17. Black vs. gay: centering LBGT people of color in civil marriage debates Adele Morrison
18. Forty years after Loving: a legacy of unintended consequences Rachel F. Moran
19. The end of marriage Tucker Culbertson
20. Afterword Peter Wallenstein.

Subject Areas: Family law [LNM], Law [L]