Summary

Loving vs. Virginia opens with a page titled "Long View: Negro," which includes a poem by Langston Hughes and a timeline running from the date of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865 through 1952, when the events of this novel begin. The next page is a bulletin outlining the “Racial Integrity” law of 1924. That law was still being enforced when Richard and Mildred married some three decades later. The title page, copyright, and table of contents follow. The next page shows a classroom of white children with a quote from George Wallace about the traits of a segregationist. The quote indicates that the person supports segregation as a means for the “Negro and white to have a separate education and social order” (Location 136). The next image shows black children in their classroom, which is obviously inferior to the white classroom.

In the opening...