Controversial Picture Book: The Case for Loving

Title: The Case for Loving
Author: Selina Alko
Publication: 2015

My favorite part of historical fiction books is how the book presents a problem that the characters struggled with back in time and how we can compare it to today's society and how far we have come. We have made great strides in the realm of interracial marriage and this book portrays the fight beautifully. The book follows a white man and African-American/Cherokee woman and their fight for a legal marriage in Virginia. They eventually take the case to the Supreme Court and win the case. Because of their fight for their rights and their love, inter-racial marriage is no longer illegal in Virginia and other states. Their case set a strong precedent for many other people who wanted to have interracial marriages and subsequent racial/sexual marriage cases to come.

As I was reading this book, I knew the story sounded familiar. I had just recently seen a preview for the new movie, "Loving," which is based on the story of this book. I am so glad that they have chosen to make this into a movie, which definitely shows the progress we have made with racial equality. The fact that interracial marriage was banned, but now they are producing a movie about the story, shows how far we have come as a society and in the right for equal rights.

This book could be used in the classroom or at home to relate to problems in today's society, like same sex marriage. As author Alko writes in the back of her book, "When I first wrote this manuscript in 2011, only five states legalized same-sex marriage. As of today in early 2014, there are seventeen states wherein gay marriage is legal" (Alko). We still have great strides to make currently with it being 2016. We still need greater accepetance legally and socially for same-sex marriage. Hopefully twenty years from now we'll be reading books published in 2016 about gay rights acceptance and we will be able to think "oh, back in the day when it was illegal."

I enjoy books like these because they showcase to the reader the passage of time and how rights, constitutionality, fairness and freedom always win out!!