Caroline County sheriff arrests Richard and Mildred Loving in their bedroom at 2 a.m. under Virginia's anti-miscegenation law

Acting on a tip, Caroline County Sheriff Garnett Brooks and two deputies entered Richard and Mildred Loving's bedroom at approximately 2 a.m. on July 11, 1958, and arrested them under Virginia's Racial Integrity Act. When Richard pointed to their Washington D.C. marriage certificate, Brooks told him: "That's no good here." Both were jailed; Richard was released on bail the next morning, but Mildred spent several nights in jail because no bail was initially offered to her. Virginia prosecutors intended the arrest as a test case for enforcing the anti-miscegenation ban against couples who married legally in other jurisdictions.