In a message dated 3/29/2005 2:11:04 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> The purpose was to serve his own private racist agenda, but after those
> records and indexes were transferred to the Library of Virginia, they served
> (and still serve) genealogists.

Plecker's "private racist agenda"......was also the agenda of others in power
in VA and other states. He articulated and helped to codify what was
happening by "custom", in Virginia and its influence spread throughout country and the
world.  I was in South Africa in Dec. and visited the Apartheid Museum, their
Racial Integrity Law was posted on wall, I thought I was reading the VA Law.
Its intent and purpose was the same.

His attack on Virginia's Indian descendants is also a culmination of a much
longer history and should not be seen as something that just came about when he
assumed office.

As for impact on genealogists, the birth and death records for 1853 through
1896 are a wonderful resource for VA researchers, and the envy of those who
research other states that didn't begin recording that early.  They also can and
do cause much consternation (to put it mildly) for those who assume they
understand just what "Race" means in America.

Another interesting article is Gregory Michael Dorr's Assuring America's
Place in the Sun:  Ivey Foreman Lewis and the Teaching of Eugenics at the
University of VA, 1915-1953. The Journal of Southern History Volume LXVI, No. 2, May
2000.

Selma Stewart


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