Evolution of the Racial Identity of Children of Loving: Has Our Thinking About Race and Racial Issues Become Obsolete?

Abstract

It is a special honor for me to have this opportunity to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Loving v. Virginia at a Symposium held in honor of its fiftieth anniversary. I served on the panel entitled "The Children of Loving," which for me has two connotations. First, as an African American who married a white woman twenty years after the decision, I am a child of Loving in the sense that I was in an interracial marriage. But as a father of two black-white biracial children, I am also a father of two Loving children. In this Article, I focus on the latter connotation of the "Children of Loving." In particular, I discuss the evolution of my children's racial identities. Due to my personal connections, I can share both an academic and personal narrative about this evolution.