The
Award, named for Mrs. Loving, will honor a young, unsung hero who has
made a difference in their community by championing civil rights and
social justice.
Mildred
Loving was part of an interracial couple who exemplified courage and
commitment. In 1958, she and her husband, Richard, married
and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live as a
family in their hometown. Their civil rights case,
Loving v. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which
in 1967 reaffirmed the very foundation of the right to marry - and their
love story has become an inspiration to couples ever since.
The Honorable Terry McAuliffe, Governor of Virginia,
last fall announced that, beginning in 2017, June 12 will be known as Loving Day in the State. The State’s permanent recognition of Loving Day commemorates the 50th anniversary
of the June 12, 1967, Supreme Court decision that ruled in favor of Richard and Mildred Loving.
Governor
McAuliffe will be one of this year’s Honorees at the NAN MLK Jr. Day
Breakfast; other Honorees include Debbie Allen, the Honorable Cory
Booker, Janice Bryant Howroyd, Cathy Hughes, and Dorothy James.
The
Mildred Loving Community Activism Award recipient is decided upon by
NAN after reviewing nominees submitted from around the country. The
Award
presentation, to be made by members of the Loving
filmmaking team, will take place following the Honoree presentations and
following the Breakfast Keynote addresses by NAN founder Reverend Al
Sharpton, Martin Luther King, Jr. III, and Administration
Members of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet. The Breakfast begins at 8:30 AM ET next Monday, January 16, at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel.
Mildred and Richard Loving’s story is told by writer/director Jeff Nichols in the motion picture
Loving, recently released by Focus Features. For her
portrayal of Mildred Loving, Ruth Negga was recently named Best Actress
of the Year by the Black Film Critics Circle, the African American Film
Critics Association, and the Alliance of Women
Film Journalists.
Loving
is currently nominated for 5 NAACP Image Awards
including Outstanding Motion Picture and was honored with the Victor
Rabinowitz & Joanne Grant Award for Social Justice at the Hamptons
International Film Festival. Additionally, the film is this year’s
winner of the Producers Guild of America’s Stanley Kramer
Award, honoring a production, producer or other individuals whose
achievement or contribution illuminated and raises public awareness of
important social issues; and is the winner of the Best Picture prize
from AARP’s Movies for Grownups Awards.