TROUBLE. . .” if you scroll down and look on the right side of the page.
The Inspiration. . .
While I was writing the song “Don’t Tell Me Who To Love” I was not familiar with the supreme court case “Loving v. Virginia.” Growing up in the sixties, however, I was aware of the attitudes concerning people of different races being allowed to marry. As early as the 1800’s, judges had claimed that such behavior would lead to “deplorable results” producing children that were “generally sick and effeminate.” Preachers also claimed that it was “immoral, unnatural and against the will of God.”
It was only as the song was nearing completion that I read about how Mildred Jeter (a woman of color) and Richard Loving (a white male) met during the fifties, fell in love and were married in Washington DC. When they returned to Virginia they were arrested and faced spending a year in prison unless they left the state. Eventually, they challenged the Virginia law and in 1967 it led to a landmark supreme court decision, in which Chief Justice Earl Warren said, “Marriage is one of the basic civil rights of man, fundamental to our very existence and survival.”
At the time this decision was made a vast majority of Americans felt that the court was wrong. Fortunately, today, this is not the case and that is evident by our nation’s recent decision to elect a president whose parents are of different races.
The only line in the song that was changed after my research was in the first verse. Originally, I had written that in 1966 the couple were “making their wedding plans” but this was changed to “wearing their wedding bands” because I felt it was more reflective of Mildred and Richard’s situation.
On Saturday, November 15th, 2008 I sang this song before a thousand people who had joined together to protest the recent passage of Prop 2 in Florida. As I sang the words, “now there always will be hatred and voices that condemn, but I believe that true love is going to make it in the end,” I remembered a statement made by a beautiful black pastor at a conference I recently attended. She said that people of color did not receive equality because white people suddenly decided they were worthy of equality but rather when people of color decided they were worthy of equality. I hope this song encourages us all to say “I know what’s in my heart and that should be enough…don’t tell me who to love.”
Ray Boltz
SONG LYRICS: “Don’t Tell Me Who To Love”
written by Ray Boltz (c) 2008 Shepherd Boy Music/ASCAP
VERSE ONE
The year was 1966 and they were wearing their wedding bands
She was black and he was white and some people didn’t understand
The judge said that’s not legal, the preacher called it a sin
But they couldn’t stop them cause he loved her and she loved him
CHORUS
Don’t tell me who to love, don’t tell me who to kiss
Don’t tell me that there’s something wrong because I feel like this
I know what’s in my heart, that should be enough
Don’t tell me, don’t tell me no, don’t tell me who to love
VERSE TWO
Maybe you’re in love today and you’ve been making wedding plans
But there is someone in your way shouting things cause they don’t understand
The judge says that’s not legal, the preacher calls it a sin
Oh you just remember they were wrong before and they’re wrong again
REPEAT CHORUS
BRIDGE
Now there always will be hatred and voices that condemn
Oh but I believe that true love is gonna make it in the end
REPEAT CHORUS (fade)
