PROCLAMATION
WHEREAS, in June of 1958, Mildred and Richard Loving were married in the District of Columbia, and chose to settle down in their native home state of Virginia, only to be arrested and charged one month later with miscegenation, which was a felony offense in Virginia code at the
time, and
WHEREAS, in 1964 Mrs. Loving wrote a letter to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, seeking his help. The attorney general, in turn, forwarded her letter to the offices of Cohen, Hirschkop & Hall, at 110 North Royal Street in Alexandria. There it reached the hands of a young Alexandria civil rights lawyer, Bernard “Bernie” Cohen, a recent Georgetown University Law School graduate, and
WHEREAS, Cohen and his partner, Philip J. Hirschkop, took the Lovings’ case all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, and,
WHEREAS, on June 12, 1967, Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia which struck down laws against interracial marriage nationwide, writing “Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.”
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JUSTIN M. WILSON, Mayor of the City of Alexandria, Virginia, and on behalf of the Alexandria City Council, do hereby recognize Monday, June 12th, 2023, on the 56th anniversary of the unanimous Supreme Court decision, as:
“LOVING DAY”
in the City of Alexandria and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand caused the Seal of the City of Alexandria to be affixed this 12th day of June 2023 .
(Seal) City of Alexandria Virginia
(Signed) MAYOR JUSTIN M. WILSON
On behalf of the City Council of Alexandria, Virginia
ATTEST:
(Signed) Gloria A. Sitton, CMC City Clerk
