AUTHOR’S NOTE
INTRODUCTION
PART ONE BEFORE LOVING, 1607–1939
CHAPTER ONE
Going Native: Virginia’s First Lovers and Haters
CHAPTER TWO
Sex, Love, and Rebellion in Early Colonial Virginia
CHAPTER THREE
Slavery Begets Antimiscegenation and White Supremacy
CHAPTER FOUR
Miscegenation, Dog-Whistling, and the Spread of Supremacy
PART TWO LOVING
CHAPTER FIVE
Loving v. Virginia (1967)
PART THREE AFTER LOVING
CHAPTER SIX
2017: Interracial Intimacy and the Threat to and Persistence of
White Supremacy
CHAPTER SEVEN
More Loving: Families and Friendship
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Future: The Rise of the Culturally Dexterous
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
INDEX
Sheryll Cashin, professor of law at Georgetown University, is author of The Agitator's Daughter, The Failures of Integration, and Place, Not Race. She is a frequent commentator on law and race relations, appearing on NPR, CNN, ABC News, and MSNBC. Cashin was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and served in the Clinton White House as an advisor on urban and economic policy.
“A concise, powerful reflection on the 50th anniversary of the
landmark case.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A timely and illuminating account of a struggle that lies at the
heart of the American story.”
—Jill Lepore, author of The Secret History of Wonder Woman
“In this sweeping history of what was formerly known as
‘miscegenation,’ Sheryll Cashin beautifully unfolds the history of
interracial intimacy from the earliest days of the colonies until
the current reemergence of the white supremacy movement. At the
center of this narrative, Cashin places the Loving v. Virginia
Supreme Court case of 1967 which finally overturned all statutes
penalizing interracial marriages. Through a wonderfully readable
set of stories, including references to popular culture, Cashin
provides an accessible, essential, and ultimately hopeful view of
racial relationships in America.”
—Henry Louis Gates Jr.
“White supremacy has long foiled love, and love has long foiled
white supremacy. Sheryll Cashin offers us this essential historical
revelation in Loving. This fascinating and accessible story puts
the fifty-year-old Loving v. Virginia decision in much-needed
historical perspective and shares its unknown post-history. In the
end, Loving offers an optimistic showpiece of the possibilities of
an antiracist America divorced from white supremacy where
‘dexterous’ acceptors of difference can marry, can befriend, can
love the identical hearts under our different-looking skins. Loving
gives us the historical tools and urges us to renew our old fight
for the human right to love.”
—Ibram X. Kendi, author of Stamped from the Beginning: The
Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
“Cashin makes a compelling argument that interracial intimacy,
though in and of itself inadequate for eradicating white supremacy,
contributes to a racial dexterity the likes of which will be
crucial to that task in years to come. With rich historicity and
sharp analysis, she explores the ways in which interracial romance
has long served as a bogeyman for racists but is now helping to
create a critical mass of whites who may, finally, see fit to join
with their black and brown partners, lovers, friends, and
colleagues to forge a new and better nation.”
—Tim Wise, author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a
Privileged Son and Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority
“Sheryll Cashin tells a historical story that is at times chilling,
at times heartening, and always astonishing. But it’s her vision of
the future, embodied in Cashin’s term ‘cultural dexterity,’ that
makes Loving something even greater: a road map to a bright
American future.”
—Daniel Okrent, author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of
Prohibition
“[T]his important book deserves attention. Interracial intimacy is
one of the most important story lines of contemporary Black
history. Cashin is an apt observer and excellent storyteller. Her
perspective deserves a place alongside other prominent voices of
contemporary Black history.”
—Matthew J. Johnson, The Journal of African American History
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