The racism and the Jim Crow laws that existed were so encompassing that they applied to things you may have never thought about. It makes me wonder how many laws were removed from the books with the Civil Rights movement. And they talk about government needing to be smaller.

"The Loving Story" is about Richard Perry Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter Loving, a Black woman, who violated Virginia's miscegenation laws when they married. On June 2, 1958 the two got married in Washington D. C. and went back home to Virginia. On July 14th a sheriff entered their home at 4 a.m. And arrested them. They were sentenced to a year in prison, but the judge suspended the sentence with the condition that they leave Virginia. They were banished for nine years before the U. S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction which allowed them to legally return home as a couple.

"The Loving Story" is mostly footage from the 1960's while the case was actively being argued. There are a few present day interviews, but most of the interviews were from about 60 years ago. If I thought about it, then it would make sense to me that the South would have anti-miscegenation laws, but when you don't operate with that mindset, you wouldn't fathom it. "The Loving Story" is just one more important battle waged and won during the fight for civil rights back in the 60's.

A classic example of an excellent document (the story of a persecuted mixed-race married couple in the 50s that went all the way to the US Supreme Court and finally changed the laws) in a not so excellent documentary. While the story and the characters are very compelling, the documentary seems to drag out for some periods and it looks more like an easy made for TV documentary than a true artistic reflexion.

This HBO documentary is about a famous case that went to the Supreme Court back in the 1960s. It seems that Mr. and Mrs. Loving were different races and, believe it or not, back in 1958 when they married, such a mixed marriage was illegal in almost half the states in the US! The story about Mr. and Mrs. Loving is very, very compelling. You can't help but be pulled into the film because they were so wronged by the state of Virginia. And, I loved the movie dramatization about them ("Mrs. and Mrs. Loving"). However, "The Loving Story" is good but flawed--mostly because the folks at HBO forgot to caption the film. While this always irritates me (since my daughter is deaf and I am somewhat hard of hearing),it's more of a problem here because many of the clips used were old and heavily accented--and many folks would struggle to understand all of this. Being a Southern American would make understanding the accents easier. Overall, well worth seeing--but a bit flawed due to sound issues.