I disagree with you here Paul. Plecker identified Indians as, "issue", a 
derogatory term. He was not as benign a character as you make him out to be. 
He knew nothing about the racial makeup of Native Americans, except what he 
was told, and what was in the record. You almost make it seem like he was 
performing a public service. This is the same thing Hitler did with the Jews 
in Nazi Germany.


Anita





>From: Paul Heinegg <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history         
>      <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Plecker
>Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 18:50:07 -0500
>
>Hi Sally. Walter Plecker was a medical doctor who was also a relatively low 
>level government official--Registrar of Vital Statistics--in Virginia in 
>1928 when he began a campaign against counties registering light-skinned 
>people as "Indian" on their birth certificates because he knew that nearly 
>all people in Virginia with Indian ancestry have African ancestry as well. 
>He had nothing to do with the passage of the "racial integrity" law he 
>enforced, but he is the one associated with it.
>
>What about the Governor, legislature, etc., that signed the law?
>
>Since the Civil War (and still today) there have been three castes in 
>Virginia and surrounding states: white, Indian and African American. The 
>racial integrity law reclassified very light-skinned mixed-race people as 
>"Negroes."
>
>Apparently to some, Jim Crow laws were fine as long as they were excepted. 
>For example, there are a group of people in Tennessee and surrounding areas 
>called "Melungeons," who could pass as white in most cities but are known 
>in the areas where they live to have mixed ancestry. In the mid-1900s they 
>were described by some anthropologists as the most racist people in the 
>United States. Imagine how they felt when Plecker contacted their local 
>county officials asking that they be classified as "Negroes."
>You can read the family history of many of those who were the subject of 
>Virginia's racist "Eugenics" laws on my website:
>http://www.freeafricanamericans.com
>The families included Adkins, Allmond, Bass, Beverly, Bradby, Brandom/ 
>Branham, Bunch, Byrd, Clark, Coleman, Collins, Custalow, Dungee, Epps, 
>Fortune, Gibson, Goins, Hartless, Holmes, Johns, Locklear, Mason, Miles, 
>Redcross, Roberts, Sawyer, Shepherd, Sorrell, Tyree, Terry, Spurlock, 
>Stewart, Weaver, Wynn, and others. Incidentally, the Weavers were East 
>Indians who mixed with African Americans and are today considered Nansemond 
>Indians.
>Paul

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