Claim: Ruth Negga portrayed Mildred Loving in a biopic.

Loving v. Virginia , , is a landmark civil rights decision of the United States Supreme Court , which invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage .   The case was brought by Mildred Loving , a black woman , and Richard Loving , a white man , who had been sentenced to a year in prison in Virginia for marrying each other . Their marriage violated the state 's anti-miscegenation statute , the Racial Integrity Act of 1924 , which prohibited marriage between people classified as `` white '' and people classified as `` colored '' . The Supreme Court 's unanimous decision determined that this prohibition was unconstitutional , overruling Pace v. Alabama -LRB- 1883 -RRB- and ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States .   The decision was followed by an increase in interracial marriages in the U.S. , and is remembered annually on Loving Day , June 12 . It has been the subject of several songs and three movies , including the 2016 film Loving . Beginning in 2013 , it was cited as precedent in U.S. federal court decisions holding restrictions on same-sex marriage in the United States unconstitutional , including in the 2015 Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges .