50th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia and the 7 most inspiring interracial couples

It isn’t Valentine’s Day but it is National Loving Day.

Monday marked the 50th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage.

After 9 years, the case was finally ruled on June 12, 1967, allowing the marriage between Richard Loving, a 23-year old white man, and Mildred Loving, a 17-year old black woman, in a unanimous decision.

The number of married couples with a spouse of a different race or ethnicity in the U.S. grew from three percent in 1967 to 17 percent in 2015, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

A recent survey by the same research center found that only 39 percent of U.S. adults said marriage between different races are a good thing. The survey was conducted from Feb. 28, 2017, to March 12, 2017.

Whatever the statistics show, here are a number of interracial couples that have inspired us in 2017: