Walter Ashby Plecker

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Walter Ashby Plecker (2 April 1861–1947) was a physician and public health advocate who was the first registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital Statistics.

Plecker graduated from Hoover Military Academy in 1880 and obtained a medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1885. He settled in Hampton, Virginia in 1892, and became its public health officer in 1902. He took an active interest in obstetrics and public health issues, educating midwives, inventing a home incubator, and prescribing home remedies for infants. His efforts are credited with an almost 50% decline in birthing deaths for black mothers.[1]

From 1912 to 1945, Plecker served as the first registrar of Virginia's newly-created Bureau of Vital Statistics. An avowed white supremacist and advocate of eugenics, Plecker believed that the state's Native Americans had been "mongrelized" with its African American population.[2] A law passed by the state's General Assembly in 1924, "The Racial Integrity Act," recognized only two races, "white" and "colored." Plecker believed that "colored" people were attempting to pass as "Indian." Plecker's policies pressured required state agencies to reclassify most citizens claiming Indian identity as "colored." This policy has left a modern-day legacy where Virginia "tribes" struggle to achieve federal recognition because they cannot prove their heritage as required by federal laws.[3]

[edit] Quotes

  • "Let us turn a deaf ear to those who would interpret Christian brotherhood as racial equality." (1925)[1]
  • the "sickening and saddest feature...the considerable number of degenerate white women giving birth to mulatto children" (1925) [2]
  • "...insanity, tendency to crime, and immorality are almost surely transmitted to their children, especially when both parents are of the same class. The worst forms of undesirables born amongst us are those whose parents are of different races." [2]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "The black-and-white world of Walter Ashby Plecker", Warren Fiske, The Virginian-Pilot, August 18, 2004
  2. ^ a b c "Racial Integrity or 'Race Suicide': Virginia's Eugenic Movement, W. E. B. Du Bois, and the Work of Walter A. Plecker", Derryn E. Moten, Negro History Bulletin, April-September 1999, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1157/is_1999_April-Sept/ai_70872606/pg_2, accessed April 8, 2008
  3. ^ "House Approves Federal Recognition for VA Tribes On Eve of 400th Jamestown Anniversary, Tribes Reach Recognition Milestone", Office of U.S. Congressman Jim Morran, May 8, 2007
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