For the past few years Kyle Lierman and Amanda Brown Lierman have rounded up family and friends on June 12 to celebrate a historic milestone: the day the nation’s highest court struck down laws banning interracial marriages.
Friday marked the 53-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Loving v. Virginia, which struck down all anti-miscegenation laws in the country. June 12, the day in 1967 the case was decided, has come to be celebrated as Loving Day.
Kyle and Amanda, a Silver Spring interracial couple that met while working in the Obama White House, started celebrating Loving Day in 2018 with a party at Mrs. K’s Restaurant & Cellar in Silver Spring.
“It was a fun chance to bring our whole community together of work people, campaign people, friends, family,” Amanda said in an interview on Saturday.
The Liermans, who will celebrate their five-year anniversary in September, wanted to have a party this year, but realized a few months ago they couldn’t because of the need for social distancing during the coronavirus health crisis.
“We were stuck in sadness around not being able to have a party this year. It took us a long time to come up with an alternative idea,” Amanda said.
Kyle and Amanda, 33 and 34 respectively, enlisted the help of friends and family to create a short video commemorating the court ruling. In the video, which is posted on social media, the Liermans can be seen with their girls Belle and Leia. Other couples also make an appearance and talk about the importance of the court ruling, and the need for continued advocacy for social justice. The video features the song “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers.
Among those who make an appearance in the video are several former Obama White House staff members, including Chris Lu, a former White House cabinet secretary, Kyle said.
The Liermans asked people to send in videos of themselves the week before, talking about what Loving Day means to them.
Amanda said that at first she thought she could make the video herself using editing software on her computer, but later reconsidered.
“We chased people for videos for a couple of days and then I realized it might be too big of an editing project for one of us, so we asked a dear friend of ours, Kat Skiles, to help us pull it together, and she really did make magic with the hodgepodge we had given her,” she said.
As of Saturday evening, the video had more than 27,000 views on Twitter. Among those who sent the Liermans messages of appreciation were Maya Soetoro-Ng, President Obama’s half-sister, and Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to Obama.
Kyle, the son of former Maryland Democratic Party Chair Terry Lierman and brother of state delegate Brooke Lierman (D-Baltimore City), said making the Loving Day video was a “great way to share a story of progress.”
“A lot of folks are amazed that it’s only been 53 years that laws were struck down banning interracial marriage. So, I think it’s a good reminder for everyone and for us every year how far we’ve come but how far we still have to go,” he said.
The Liermans said their girls, who are two and a half and almost one, have attended “a lot of protests” for various social justice causes.
“I think it’s important to do that work and keep them grounded in the fact that people are doing that work and fighting,” said Amanda, who works for Supermajority – an organization that tries to get more women involved in the political process.
The Liermans said they emphasize the importance of diversity to their children through activities such as reading them books that center on black heroes. But the girls are too young to discuss deeper issues surrounding racism, Kyle said.
“It’s a couple years before we have those conversations with them. But the way Amanda and I spend our time is doing everything we can to create as just a society as possible when they grow up,” he said.
Dan Schere can be reached at Daniel.schere@moco360.media