Racial Integrity Act of 1924

Common card · No. 325075

In 1924, the Virginia General Assembly enacted the Racial Integrity Act, which reinforced racial segregation by prohibiting interracial marriage and classifying as "White" a person "who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian". The act, an outgrowth of the eugenicist and scientific racist ideology widespread in the United States, was pushed by Walter Plecker, a staunch advocate of White supremacist policies and eugenics who held the post of registrar of the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics. The Racial Integrity Act required that all birth certificates and marriage certificates in Virginia to include the person's race as either "white" or "colored". The Act classified all non-whites, including Native Americans, as "colored". The act was part of a series of "racial integrity laws" enacted in Virginia to reinforce racial hierarchies and prohibit the mixing of races; other statutes included the Public Assemblages Act of 1926 (which required the racial segregation of all...

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