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Central Point, Virginia

Coordinates: 37°59′20″N 77°07′56″W / 37.98889°N 77.13222°W / 37.98889; -77.13222
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Central Point, Virginia
St. Stephen's Baptist Church in Central Point
St. Stephen's Baptist Church in Central Point
Central Point is located in Virginia
Central Point
Central Point
Location in Virginia
Central Point is located in the United States
Central Point
Central Point
Location in the contiguous United States
Coordinates: 37°59′20″N 77°07′56″W / 37.98889°N 77.13222°W / 37.98889; -77.13222
CountryUnited States
State Virginia
CountyCaroline
Time zoneUTC−5 (Eastern (EST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC−4 (EDT)

Central Point is an unincorporated community in Caroline County, in the U.S. state of Virginia.[1]

History

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Loving v. Virginia

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Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter grew up in Central Point. He was white and she was Rappahannock and African American in ancestry, identifying as Indian (a classification the state disallowed under its binary system of "white" or "colored"). In this small community people shared their lives and work, and the couple fell in love. In 1958 they married in Washington, D.C., but returned here to live, thus violating state law against interracial marriages. They were arrested and charged, and forced to leave the state for 25 years to avoid being jailed. They moved to Washington, D.C., but challenged the law, as they wanted to go home. Their case reached the US Supreme Court, where in Loving v. Virginia (1967), the state's anti-miscegenation law was overturned for violating the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects due process and equal rights under the law.[2]

References

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  1. ^ "Central Point, Virginia". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. ^ Virginia's Central Point, "symbolic of Main Street USA,"' Washington Post, Carol Morello, February 10, 2012