From the ACLU, this is at Liberty.

I'm Emerson Sykes, a staff attorney here at the ACLU and your host.

This week, we're airing a special conversation we recorded recently in front of a live audience

about the landmark ACLU case Loving v. Virginia, which struck down bands on interracial marriage.

The discussion took place at the Brooklyn Public Library as part of an event titled,

Till Victory is One, commemorating the 400th anniversary

of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans

to America's shores.

I spoke with Melissa Murray,

a professor at New York University School of Law.

Our conversation covered the long history

of legal restrictions on sex and marriage

that have served to protect and reinforce white supremacy.

I hope you enjoy. Good evening.

Thank you very much for joining us. This is a great honor and a pleasure to be here with you and to be

with Professor Murray. And I want to start out with a bit of a story about the folks that you see in

this picture behind you.

In 1958, Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were married in the District of Columbia.

When the Lovings returned to their home in the state of Virginia, they were charged with violating the state's anti-missigination law,

which banned interracial marriages.

The Lovings were found guilty and sentenced to a year in jail.

The trial judge agreed to suspend the sentence

...