But in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the case of Richard Perry Loving, who was white, and his wife, Mildred Loving, of African American and Native American descent.
The case changed history - and was captured on film by LIFE photographer Grey Villet, whose black-and-white photographs are now set to go on display at the International Center of Photography.
Loving: Grey Villet's photograph captures Richard Loving kissing wife Mildred as he arrives home from work in King and Queen County, Virginia, April 1965
Content: The Loving's children Peggy, Sidney and Donald play in King and Queen County, Virginia in April 1965
Twenty images show the tenderness and family support enjoyed by Mildred and Richard and their three children, Peggy, Sidney and Donald.
The children, unaware of the struggles their parents face, are captured by Villet as blissfully happy as they play in the fields near their Virginia home or share secrets with their parents on the couch.
Their parents, caught sharing a kiss on their front porch, appear more worry-stricken.
And it is no wonder - eight years prior, the pair had married in the District of Columbia to evade the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which banned any white person marrying any non-white person.
But when they returned to Virginia, police stormed into their room in the middle of the night and they were arrested.
The pair were found guilty of miscegenation in 1959 and were each sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for 25 years if they left Virginia.
Tender: Mildred Loving greets husband Richard on their front porch in King and Queen County, Virginia, April 1965
Love: Grey Villet captures Richard and Mildred Loving with their children Peggy, Donald and Sidney in their living room in King and Queen County, Virginia, April 1965
They moved back to the District of Columbia, where they began the long legal battle to erase their criminal records - and justify their relationship.
Following vocal support from the Presbyterian and Roman Catholic churches, the Lovings won the fight - with the Supreme Court branding Virginia's anti-miscegenation law unconstitutional in 1967.
It wrote in its decision: 'Marriage is one of the basic civil rights of man, fundamental to our very existence and survival.
'To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law.'
A moment: Grey Villet captures Mildred and Richard Loving, their daughter Peggy, Mildred's sister Garnet and Richard's mother Lola, on the porch of Mildred's mother's house, Caroline County, Virginia in April 1965
Family: Richard and Mildred Loving sit in the open door of a car celebrating Richard's winning race, Sumerduck dragway in Sumerduck, Virginia, April 1965
Following the ruling, there was a 448 per cent increase in the number of interracial marriages in Georgia alone.
In 2007, 32 years after her husband died, Mrs Loving - who herself passed away the following year - released a statement in support of same-sex marriage.
She said: 'Not a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the "wrong kind of person" for me to marry
'I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry.
Concern: Mildred and Richard Loving in their home. They had been arrested in 1958, shortly after their marriage
Fears: In 1967, the US Supreme Court, in a unanimous verdict, ruled in the Loving's favor in 'Loving v. Virginia' and overturned Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute
Long fight: Left, Mildred and Richard Loving speak with their American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in May 1965. Pictured right, Mildred walks with her daughter near their home in Caroline County, Virginia the same year
'I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about.'
Photographs of their content family life and grapple with the law were unearthed by director Nancy Buirski during the making of a documentary about the pair.
Her documentary, The Loving Story, will air on February 14 on HBO.
Twenty of the prints will be exhibited at the International Center of Photography in New York City, from January 20 until May 6. They are on loan by the estate of Grey Villet and by the Loving family.
Together: Richard Loving and his son sit on a sofa in their home in Central Point, Caroline County, Virginia, May 196 - two years before the U.S Supreme court threw out the law banning interracial marriage
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