Virginia court sentences Lovings to 1 year in prison, suspended for 25 years if they leave the state and never return together

Richard and Mildred Loving appeared before Caroline County Circuit Court Judge Leon Bazile on January 6, 1959, pleaded guilty, and were each sentenced to one year in jail. Judge Bazile suspended the sentence on the condition that the Lovings leave Virginia and not return together for 25 years. Bazile wrote in his opinion: "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and He placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with His arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages." The Lovings moved to Washington D.C., where they lived in cramped conditions near Mildred's relatives while raising three children in exile from their home county.