Town of Erie 1874
Proclamation
Loving Day – June 12, 2026
Whereas, until 1957, the State of Colorado banned interracial marriages between
white and Black residents; and
Whereas, Richard and Mildred Loving were natives of the Central Point area of Caroline County, Virginia who were arrested in 1958 for violating Virginia’s felony law against interracial marriage; and
Whereas, following their conviction in the Caroline County Circuit Court, their sentence was suspended, provided they did not return to their Central Point home or the Commonwealth of Virginia as a couple for 25 years; and
Whereas, the Lovings fought their way to the United States Supreme Court and nine years later, on June 12, 1967, their conviction was overturned and all anti-miscegenation laws nationwide ended in as (sic) case known as Loving vs. Virginia; and
Whereas, Chief Justice Warren wrote in the court majority opinion that: Marriage is one of the basic civil rights of man, fundamental to our very existence and survival… To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not to marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.; and
WHEREAS, Loving vs. Virginia has significant real and symbolic meaning to all those who wish to marry the person they love no matter who they are.
NOW, THEREFORE, the Town Council of Erie does hereby recognize Friday, June 12, 2026, on the 59th anniversary of the unanimous Supreme Court decision, as: “LOVING DAY” in the Town of Erie and we call this observance to the attention of all our residents.
ADOPTED this 9th day of June, 2026.
Attest:
(Signed) Debbie Stamp, Town Clerk
(Signed) Andrew J. Moore, Mayor
(Seal) TOWN OF ERIE CORPORATE SEAL COLORADO
