Mildred Loving: "Indian" on the license, "Negro" in the census (Caroline County, VA, 1940–1967)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet provenDisputed: argued, often by a hostile witness
Year: 1940 · Places: Virginia, Africa
SUMMARYMildred Loving: "Indian" on the license, "Negro" in the census (Caroline County, VA, 1940–1967) [Connections: Virginia & Eastern Shore, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDGBH/AP (2017) reports that Mildred Loving's marriage license lists her race as "Indian." Her family is listed as "Negro" in the 1940 census. In a 1963 letter to the ACLU she "identified herself as part Negro and part Indian." In 2004 she told historian Arica L. Coleman, "We have no black relatives." The Rappahannock, which she claimed as her tribe, reportedly would not then accept members with African American ancestry. Her grandson Mark Loving: "Both her parents were Native-American."
PATTERNThe best-known case of one person carrying two identities in Virginia records. She was "Indian" on one document and "Negro" on another, and Caroline County is the same county as the Plecker list and the draft case
DISPUTEDColeman says she was both Black and Native. Her family says she was Indian only
LENS (WW9)The woman behind Loving v. Virginia had "Indian" on her license and was called Black in the court case
OPENGet an image of the license itself; get the 1940 census sheet