Anita:  Some of this took place in NC well into the middle of the 20th Century.  Jane.

-----Original Message-----
>From: Anita Wills <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Jun 26, 2007 11:38 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Plecker
>
>Paul,
>You forgot to mention that Plecker was a card carrying member of the 
>Eugenics movement. They supported sterilizing Indians, and other 
>people of color, who they considered inferior. You should ask the 
>Natives how they feel about Plecker and his methods. 
>
>Anita 
>
>
>
>
>
>-- Paul Heinegg <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>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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Lillian Jane Steele