WS Chronicle

“The Loving Story” took home the award for Outstanding Historical Programing (Long Form) at the 34th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards.

Susie Powell

The screenwriter for the hit documentary is Bennett College alumna Susie Powell ’64, a former Bennett board member and recent inductee into the College’s Women of Substance Circle, a distinguished society of exemplary women.

“The Loving Story” depicts the quest for matrimonial rights of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple who in 1967 challenged the Supreme Court in order to legally live in Virginia and have their marriage recognized by the state. From there, the documentary examines the history and current tolerance for interracial marriages throughout the United States.

The documentary was also nominated for Outstanding Documentary and Outstanding Editing. “The Loving Story” has had a history of critical acclaim since its premiere at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in April 2011. To date, it has won the Gabrielle Award and the George Foster Peabody Award, both in 2013, as well as the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) Documentary Screenplay Award at the AFI-Discover Channel Silverdocs Festival in 2011. Co-produced by HBO Documentary Films, “The Loving Story” first aired on HBO in February 2012.

Powell received her bachelor’s in English from Bennett. After earning a master’s at Smith College, she enrolled in law school from Case Western Reserve and became one of two black women to graduate from her class. A black woman who was once denied the right to vote in rural North Carolina, Powell passed the Ohio Bar Examination and immediately set out to right the wrongs of our nation. After a full career dedicated to poverty law, Powell began exercising her talent for writing. She has published many short stories and articles.

For more information about “The Loving Story,” visit http://lovingfilm.com/.