which lawyer helped the lovings

The Lovings began their legal battle in November 1963. With the aid of Bernard Cohen and Philip Hirschkop, two young ACLU lawyers, the couple filed a motion asking for Judge Bazile to vacate their conviction and set aside their sentences.

Full Answer

Who was the lawyer who represented the Lovings in court?

Hirschkop and another attorney, Bernard Cohen, represented the Lovings during their legal fight. It was a difficult time to be a black woman married to a white man. “It would have been much harder as a black man and white woman,” Hirschkop said. “They might have been hanged for that.”

Who was the lawyer for Mildred and Richard Loving?

Philip J. Hirschkop, 80, was one of the lawyers who represented Mildred and Richard Loving in their landmark Supreme Court case, Loving vs. Virginia. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

Who was Richard Loving and what did he do?

Richard Loving was the son of Lola (Allen) Loving and Twillie Loving. He was also born and raised in Central Point, where he was a construction worker. He was white and his grandfather, T. P. Farmer, fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War.

How did the Lovings get their case set aside?

Kennedy referred the Lovings to the American Civil Liberties Union, which agreed to take their case. The Lovings began their legal battle in November 1963. With the aid of Bernard Cohen and Philip Hirschkop, two young ACLU lawyers, the couple filed a motion asking for Judge Bazile to vacate their conviction and set aside their sentences.

How did Richard loving die?

Richard Loving died aged 41 in 1975 in Caroline County, Virginia, killed by a drunk driver. Mildred Loving died of pneumonia on May 2, 2008, in Milford, Virginia, aged 68.

Who was the attorney for the ACLU?

On April 10, 1967, only a few years out of law school, Cohen argued as a volunteer cooperating attorney for the ACLU on behalf of the petitioners Richard and Mildred Loving in the case of Loving v. Virginia before the Supreme Court of the United States.

What was the case of Loving v. Virginia?

On April 10, 1967, with co-counsel Philip Hirschkop, he presented oral argument for the petitioners in Loving v. Virginia before the U. S. Supreme Court. On June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Cohen's clients, declaring bans on interracial marriage unconstitutional, thus invalidating the anti-miscegenation laws of 15 states.

What did the Supreme Court do to the interracial marriage laws?

The Supreme Court ruling voided the existing interracial marriage laws of 15 mostly Southern states, including all the states of the former Confederacy.

What was the purpose of the Cohen bills?

Many of Cohen's bills were not related to civil liberties, but were designed to favor defendants or plaintiffs in legal proceedings and were written in complex legal language. A large number of Cohen's bills were designed to benefit people who filed personal injury cases in Virginia courts.

What was the bill that Cohen sponsored in 1980?

As a freshman delegate in 1980, Cohen sponsored a controversial measure to decriminalize homosexuality in Virginia, a traditionally conservative state. Not surprisingly, the bill failed.

Why were the lovings arrested?

The Lovings left to live in Washington, but were arrested again five years later for traveling together, when they returned to Virginia to visit relatives. After the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the couple wrote to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy for help.

Where did the lovings get married?

After the Lovings married in Washington, D.C. in 1958, they returned to their home state of Virginia, where soon after they were rousted out of bed and arrested for violating the state’s anti-miscegenation law.

How did Richard loving die?

Virginia, went to the Supreme Court, where in 1967 the justices struck down Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage. Richard Loving died in a car crash in 1975. Mildred Loving died of pneumonia in 2008.

Who represented the couple in losing appeals on the newest charges in district and appellate courts?

Volunteer attorneys Philip Hirschkop and Bernard Cohen represented the couple in losing appeals on the newest charges in district and appellate courts. "It was a terrible time in America," Cohen told The Washington Post in 2008. "Racism was ripe and this was the last de jure vestige of racism — there was a lot of de facto racism, but this law was...the last on-the-books manifestation of slavery in America."

How old was the Black woman who wanted nothing else than to marry her white sweetheart?

Now, this saga of a 17-year-old Black woman who wanted nothing else than to marry her white 23-year-old childhood sweetheart will be recounted in The Loving Story, a documentary that will be shown, appropriately, on Valentine’s Day, at 9 p.m. ET.

Who was the lawyer who started the loving case?

We know we can’t live there, but we would like to go back once and a while to visit our families and friends.”. Hirschkop started working on the Loving case by happenstance. In July 1964, Hirschkop was meeting with Chester Antieau, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University’s Law Center.

Who was the lawyer who represented Mildred and Richard loving?

Philip J. Hirschkop, 80, was one of the lawyers who represented Mildred and Richard Loving in their landmark Supreme Court case, Loving vs. Virginia. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

What did Hirschkop do?

Hirschkop traces his passion for social justice to childhood encounters with migrant farmworkers in New Jersey. His father owned a clothing shop and sold “irregular” clothes to migrant workers who traveled through New Jersey to work on chicken and potato farms. “They would be put to live in cleared-out chicken coops with no running water,” said Hirschkop, a former Green Beret who originally set out to become a patent attorney.

What was the case that led to the 1967 Supreme Court decision legalizing interracial marriages in Virginia and 15 other?

Virginia, the case that led to the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing interracial marriages in Virginia and 15 other states. A film, “Loving,” which opened in theaters last month, tells the story of Mildred and Richard Loving, the mixed-race couple who were arrested in 1958 after they defied Virginia ’s miscegenation laws.

When did Hirschkop start working on the loving case?

When Hirschkop started working on the Loving case in 1964, a petition was still pending in Virginia’s state court system. But a win there was unlikely.

What did Mailer describe Hirschkop's courtroom skills?

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book “ The Armies of the Night ,” Mailer described Hirschkop’s courtroom skills: “Hirschkop’s dark hair and powerful short body put double weight in back of every remark. . . . [W]hat he did believe, what stood out about him, was his love of law as an intricate deceptive, smashing, driving, tricky game somewhere between wrestling, football and philosophy — what also stood out was his love of winning, his tenacity, his detestation of defeat.”

Where is the loving case file?

Hirschkop, who is still practicing law at 80, dropped the Loving case file on the desk in his home office overlooking the Potomac River in Lorton, Va. The manila folder contains original letters written by Mildred Loving, who died in 2008.

What did the lovings pled guilty to?

In 1959, the Lovings pled guilty to ‘cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth’. Photograph: © Grey Villet, 1965. Facebook Twitter. Richard kisses his wife as he arrives home from work.

Why did the lovings marry?

In June 1958, the couple went to Washington DC to marry, to work around Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which made marriage between whites and non-whites a crime. After an anonymous tip, police officers raided their home a month later, telling the Lovings their marriage certificate was invalid. In 1959, the Lovings pled guilty ...

How long did the lovings stay in prison?

The Lovings were were sentenced to one year in prison, suspended if they left Virginia and did not return together for at least 25 years. The couple moved to Washington DC. Photograph: © Grey Villet, 1965. Facebook Twitter.

Where are Mildred and Richard loving?

Mildred and Richard Loving, pictured on their front porch in King and Queen County, Virginia, in 1965.

Did the lovings attend the hearings in Washington?

The Lovings did not attend the hearings in Washington, but Cohen conveyed a message from Richard: ‘Mr Cohen, tell the court I love my wife, and it is just unfair that I can’t live with her in Virginia.’.

Who was the lawyer who argued for loving vs Virginia?

Bernard Cohen, Lawyer Who Argued Loving V. Virginia Case, Dies At 86 Cohen was just a few years out of law school when the ACLU asked if he would take on the case of Richard and Mildred Loving — an interracial couple whose marriage was illegal in their home state.

Who was Mildred loving's husband?

Mildred Loving and her husband Richard Loving in 1965. Bernard Cohen, who successfully challenged a Virginia law banning interracial marriage and later went on to a successful political career as a Virginia state legislator, has died at age 86.

Why were Richard and Mildred arrested?

But on returning home to Virginia, they were arrested, jailed and barred from the state for 25 years for violating the state's Racial Integrity Act.

Who was the lawyer who argued the Supreme Court case that established the legality of interracial marriage?

Bernard Cohen in a 1970s campaign poster when he ran for the Virginia House of Delegates. As a lawyer he successfully argued the Supreme Court case that established the legality of interracial marriage. He died this week at age 86.

Who was Cohen's co-counsel?

Cohen took the case, working with co-counsel Philip Hirschkop, and the case went to the highest court in the land. He argued the Lovings and their children had the right to feel protected under the law just like any other family.

How many years did Bernard Cohen attend Georgetown Law School?

He graduated from the City College of New York in 1956 with an economics degree, and from Georgetown Law School four years later.

What did the lovings say to the court?

The Lovings did not attend the oral arguments in Washington, but their lawyer, Bernard S. Cohen, conveyed a message from Richard Loving to the court: " [T]ell the Court I love my wife, and it is just unfair that I can't live with her in Virginia." The case, Loving v. Virginia, was decided unanimously in the Lovings' favor on June 12, 1967. The Court overturned their convictions, dismissing Virginia's argument that the law was not discriminatory because it applied equally to and provided identical penalties for both white and black persons. The Supreme Court ruled that the anti-miscegenation statute violated both the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Lovings returned to Virginia after the Supreme Court decision.

Who was Mildred loving?

Mildred Delores Loving (July 22, 1939 – May 2, 2008) and her husband Richard Perry Loving (October 29, 1933 – June 29, 1975) were an American married couple who were the plaintiffs in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia (1967) . Their life and marriage has been the subject of several songs and three movies, including the 2016 film Loving.

How many children did the lovings have?

Later life. The Lovings had three children: Donald, Peggy, and Sidney Loving. After the Supreme Court case was resolved in 1967, the couple moved back to Central Point, where Richard built them a house. Mildred said she considered her marriage and the court decision to be God's work.

How did Richard Loving die?

On June 29, 1975, a drunk driver struck the Lovings' car in Caroline County, Virginia. Richard was killed in the accident, at age 41; Mildred lost her right eye. Graves of Mildred and Richard Loving. Mildred died of pneumonia on May 2, 2008, in Milford, Virginia, at age 68.

What was the ACLU's motion to set aside the sentence?

The ACLU filed a motion on the Lovings' behalf to vacate the judgment and set aside the sentence, on the grounds that the statutes violated the Fourteenth Amendment. This began a series of lawsuits which ultimately reached the United States Supreme Court. On October 28, 1964, when their motion still had not been decided, the Lovings began a class action suit in United States district court. On January 22, 1965, the district court allowed the Lovings to present their constitutional claims to the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. Virginia Supreme Court Justice Harry L. Carrico (later Chief Justice) wrote the court's opinion upholding the constitutionality of the anti-miscegenation statutes and affirmed the criminal convictions.

Where did the lovings move to?

They were sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for 25 years on the condition that they leave the state. They moved to the District of Columbia.

When was Loving v. Virginia decided?

The case, Loving v. Virginia, was decided unanimously in the Lovings' favor on June 12, 1967. The Court overturned their convictions, dismissing Virginia's argument that the law was not discriminatory because it applied equally to and provided identical penalties for both white and black persons.

Overview

Bernard S. Cohen (January 17, 1934 – October 12, 2020) was a civil liberties attorney and Democratic member of the Virginia House of Delegates. On April 10, 1967, appearing with co-counsel Philip Hirschkop on behalf of the ACLU, Cohen presented oral argument for the petitioners in Loving v. Virginia before the U. S. Supreme Court. On June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Cohen's clients, declaring bans on interracial marriage unconstitutional, thus invalidatin…

Early life and career

Work as a representative to the Virginia House of Delegates

Portrayal in television and movies

External links