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Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history

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Subject:
From:
Paul Heinegg <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 26 Jun 2007 18:50:07 -0500
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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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