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 marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State.
Supreme Court of the United States, Loving v. Virginia, June 12, 1967. (Unanimous opinion written by Chief Justice Warren.)
At the time the case was decided 42 years ago, Virginia was one of 16 states that still had laws prohibiting interracial marriage.