The "One-Drop" Rule and Racial Identification By Whites, Blacks, and Native Americans

as registrar of the Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dr. Plecker emphasized that everyone in Virginia should be classified as colored or white, not as Indian
as registrar of the Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dr. Plecker emphasized that everyone in Virginia should be classified as colored or white, not as Indian
as registrar of the Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dr. Plecker emphasized that everyone in Virginia should be classified as colored or white, not as Indian
Source: Library of Virginia, Registration of Birth and Color, 1924

The original inhabitants of Virginia looked very different from the European immigrants who started arriving after Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. The Africans brought to Virginia in colonial times were easily distinguished from both Europeans and Native Americans - initially. However, once people of different races produced mixed offspring with a range of skin colors and facial features, the ability to distinguish someone's "race" just from appearance became more challenging.

Offspring of whites and blacks ended up being categorized based on the status of the mother. All children of female slaves inherited the status of slavery, no matter what the status of the father. Children of a free black mother gained status as a free person of color. Mixed-race children with a white mother faced discrimination, but were not consigned to slavery. Native Americans used different criteria, and considered a child of a Native American father or mother to be "Indian."

Colonial leaders began formalizing race-based slavery after the first Africans were brought to Hampton in 1619. The process of creating a legal framework for chattel slavery was not straightforward. Multiple court decisions were made and laws were passed starting in 1661 that ultimately restricted the rights of people who were defined as "negro" or "Indian" rather than "white."

The differences in racial status was made clear in 1630. A male colonist was sentenced to be "soundly whipt" after being caught "defiling his body in lying with a negro."

Traditions established the patterns of slavery before they were codified by laws. For example, starting in 1640 only Negroes were prohibited from owning firearms.

Indentured white servants who fled their owners were, after being caught, punished differently than black people who fled. On March 1, 1661 (1660 in the Old Calendar used in the colony until 1752), the General Assembly passed a law entitled "English running away with negroes." At the time, some black servants were indentured for a term of service while others were automatically enslaved for life. That law formally acknowledged that there were blacks who were already obliged to work for their entire life, so they could not be punished by adding to their term of service like white indentured servants.

In 1662, the General Assembly passed "Negro womens children to serve according to the condition of the mother," a law clarifying that the children of enslaved mothers would also be enslaved for their entire lifetime:1

WHEREAS some doubts have arrisen whether children got by any Englishman upon a negro woman should be slave or ffree, Be it therefore enacted and declared by this present grand assembly, that all children borne in this country shalbe held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother...

Later legislation made clear that children born by enslaved mothers would stay enslaved for life even if they adopted Christianity and were baptized. By the time the Slave Codes of 1705 were passed, the subordinate status of black people was clearly locked in by both law and custom.

The status of Native Americans remained more ambiguous. In 1662, the General Assembly passed a law requiring the length of indentured service be the same for Indians as for indentured English servants, prohibiting lifetime enslavement for Native Americans. In 1773, an enslaved woman named Rachel succeeded in getting the Powhatan County court to rule in a "freedom suit" that she and her children were descendants of a Indian mother. As such, they were all free and could not be held in bondage.

To prevent the loss of his "property," Rachel and some of her children was taken to Wythe County and sold to a new owner. Her subsequent children were also kept in slavery. It took another 47 years and more legal action before Rachel Findley obtained another ruling by the Powhatan County court that she and all her children were free people of color because of her Native American ancestor.

Rachel Findley recovered her freedom and that of her children because she was descended from a Native American woman
Rachel Findley "recovered her freedom" and that of her children because she was descended from a Native American woman
Source: Library of Virginia, "Descendants of a Woman of Indian Extraction": The Story Of Rachel Findley (August 31, 2022)

The existence of a category other than white or black caused great difficulty during the era of government-enforced segregation, when racial status defined one's right to eat in a restaurant, sit on a bus, or attend school. In 1924, Virginia officials sought to cut through the confusion and eliminate the potential for light-skinned blacks to "pass" as whites, by categorizing any child with one drop of black ancestry as a black person.

As modern society has come to appreciate diversity, it has also become more realistic to consider whether any family or community is of any pure race. After all, every human alive today can trace their ancestry back to migrants who moved out of Africa some 60,000-90,000 years ago. If it were possible for every person on earth to trace their genealogy back as much as 4,500 generations, their ancestors would have been living in Africa.2

There's a modern anthropology term, tri-racial isolate, for people whose racial origins are not clear and who may be a blend of white, black, and Indian ancestry. The Melungeon families in southwestern Virginia and Tennessee are often categorized by scientists as a mixed community, with genes from various races - though some members of those families strenuously argue that their true heritage is from Portuguese or Turkish sailors and Native Americans, and there is little or no intermixing with black ancestors.

For centuries, Virginia law defined race in just a handful of categories - white, black, free people of color, Indian. Legal and social discrimination has provided strong incentives for various groups to minimize or obscure any genetic relationship with blacks in particular.

In 1887, the Virginia legislature defined who would be classified as a "colored person" or "Indian:"3

Sec. 49.Colored persons and Indians defined.
Every person having one-fourth or more of negro blood shall be deemed a colored person, and every person not a colored person having one-fourth or more of Indian blood shall be deemed an Indian.

That definition was revised in 1910 to classify anyone have one-sixteenth or more of negro blood as a "colored person." The 1924 Racial Integrity Act restricted the "white" classification to just those with no trace of non-white heritage. Only "pure white race" Caucasians could be treated under Virginia's segregation laws as "white." Those laws blocked non-whites from marrying "whites," riding in white-only railroad cars, or attending "white" schools.

The Bureau of Vital Statistics was created in 1912, and tasked with recording the racial status of all Virginians. Dr. Walter Plecker served as the first registrar.

He sought to define "pure" whites based on the theory of eugenics. White supremacy standards were codified by the General Assembly in the 1924 Racial Integrity Act:4

Preservation of racial integrity.
1. The State registrar of vital statistics may, as soon as practicable after the taking effect of this act, prepare a form, whereon the racial composition of any individual, as Caucasian, Negro, Mongolian, American Indian, Asiatic Indian, Malay, or any mixture, thereof, or any other non-Caucasic strains, and if there be any mixture, then, the racial composition of the parents and other ancestors, in so far as ascertainable, so as to show in what generation such mixture occurred, may be certified by such individual, which form shall be known as a registration certificate. The State registrar may supply to each local registrar a sufficient number of such forms for the purpose of this act; each local registrar may, personally or by deputy, as soon as possible after receiving said forms, have made thereon in duplicate a certificate of the racial composition, as aforesaid, of each person resident in his district, who so desires, ben before June 14, 1912, which certificate shall be made over the signature of said person, or in the case of children under fourteen years of age, over the signature of a parent, guardian, or other person standing in loco parentis. One of said certificates for each person thus registering in every district shall be forwarded to the State registrar for his files; the other shall be kept on file by the local registrar.

Every local registrar may, as soon as practicable, have such registration certificate made by or for each person in his district who so desires, born before June 14, 1912, for whom he has not on file a registration certificate, or a birth certificate.

2. It shall be a felony for any person wilfully or knowingly to make a registration certificate false as to color or race. The willful making of a false registration or birth certificate shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for one year.

3. For each registration certificate properly made and returned to the State registrar, the local registrar returning the same shall be entitled to a fee of twenty-five cents, to be paid by the registrant. Application for registration and for transcript may be made direct to the State registrar, who may retain the fee for expenses of his office.

4. No marriage license shall be granted until the clerk or deputy clerk has reasonable assurance that the statements as to color of both man and woman are correct.

If there is reasonable cause to disbelieve that applicants are of pure white race, when that fact is stated, the clerk or deputy clerk shall withhold the granting of the license until satisfactory proof is produced that both applicants are “white persons” as provided for in this act.

The clerk or deputy clerk shall use the same care to assure himself that both applicants are colored, when that fact is claimed.

5. It shall thereafter be unlawful for any white person in this State to marry any save a white person, or a person with no other admixture of blood than white and American Indian. For the purpose of this act, the term "white person" shall apply only to the person who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian; but persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the blood of the American Indian and have no other non-Caucasic blood shall be deemed to be white persons. All laws heretofore passed and now in effect regarding the intermarriage of white and colored persons shall apply to marriages prohibited by this act.

6. For carrying out the purposes of this act and to provide the necessary clerical assistance, postage and other expenses of the State registrar of vital statistics, twenty per cent of the fees received by local registrars under this act shall be paid to the State bureau of vital statistics, which may be expended by the said bureau for the purposes of this act.

after signing the Racial Integrity Act in 1924, Governor E. Lee Trinkle quicky registered his family as white
after signing the Racial Integrity Act in 1924, Governor E. Lee Trinkle quicky registered his family as "white"
Source: UnCommonwealth blog, Library of Virginia, The Impact Of The Act To Preserve Racial Integrity On Virginia's Indigenous Tribes

By the initial interpretation of the 1924 law, any non-white ancestor - no matter how many generations ago - would disqualify someone from being white. One drop of Negro blood would cause a person to be categorized as colored. Plecker actively encouraged local and state officials to consider all people with a mixed-race heritage as "colored," since in his opinion any non-white heritage disqualified a person from being "white."

According to Plecker, those who might be described as mulatto or Indian were non-white, and anyone who was not classified as white had to be classified as black. He contended that the Native American tribes had lost what he considered to be their racial integrity, and were no longer a distinct group.

There was no middle ground, no mixed-race status authorized by the 1924 law, with just one exception made for some "white" descendants of Pocahontas. The fear of Plecker and the racists in the Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America who supported him was that 10,000-20,000 Virginians who were "near white" but had one drop of Negro blood would behave differently, and:5

their children are likely to revert to the distinctly negro type

Dr. Walter Plecker actively used his position in state government to preserve what he considered to be pure white heritage
Dr. Walter Plecker actively used his position in state government to preserve what he considered to be "pure" white heritage
Source: Library of Virginia, Virginia Health Bulletin: The New Virginia Law To Preserve Racial Integrity, March 1924

Dr. Plecker sought to categorize many of the Indians in Virginia as black in order to stop light-skinned people with black ancestry from passing as white people and thus avoiding the Jim Crow discrimination laws. However, he was unable to use the equivalent of "one drop" of Native American blood categorize someone automatically as Indian:6

For the purpose of this act, the term "white person" shall apply only to the person who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian; but persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the blood of the American Indian and have no other non-Caucasic blood shall be deemed to be white persons

Plecker's one-drop rule was constrained by so-called First Families of Virginia (FFV's). They traced their ancestry back to Thomas Rolfe, the son of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, and were proud of their connection to what they considered to be Native American royalty. As described by one member of the Virginia elite:7

Of the Carys of Virginia, a noteworthy one was Colonel Archibald Cary, of Ampthill, near Richmond, on the James, known as "Old Iron" in the American Revolution. He married a Miss Randolph of the Curls branch of that numerous family. Through these Curls Randolphs we have received a dash of Pocahontas blood, and I have found no reason to decry this attenuated strain of descent from the long-gone little Indian princess whose high fidelity and noble unselfishness made its indelible mark upon colonial history.

As a result, Virginians whose ancestry was one-sixteenth Native American or less were declared to be "white" in the Racial Integrity Law of 1924. Whites could not have one drop of black blood, but they could have a Native American grandparent. That 1/16th "loophole" enabled descendants of Pocahontas to remain within white society, unaffected by the Jim Crow laws requiring segregation of the races.

baptism of Pocahontas in 1614
baptism of Pocahontas in 1614
Source: Library of Congress, America as a Religious Refuge: The Seventeenth Century

Plecker served as Virginia's registrar of the Bureau of Vital Statistics between 1912-1946. Plecker created lists of families that he considered to be colored, but who were attempting to define themselves as "white" by claiming that the only mixing in their family tree was with Native Americans. He wanted to ensure those trying to "pass" as white did not receive the privileges of white people in Virginia's segregated society.

As described in one review of his career:8

"...he led the effort to purify the white race in Virginia by forcing Indians and other nonwhites to classify themselves as blacks. It amounted to bureaucratic genocide."

Dr. Walter Plecker alerted local officials to block people with mixed racial heritage from passing as white
Dr. Walter Plecker alerted local officials to block people with mixed racial heritage from passing as "white"
Source: Virginia Memory, Who Do You Love?: Race And Marriage In Virginia Before The Loving Decision

Plecker justified his actions by citing the science associated with eugenics. He was extreme in his approach, including trying to force children from an orphanage because he assumed their illegitimate birth was also an indicator that they had "negro blood." He even tried to have bodies removed from a cemetery reserved for whites.

As further research drew into question the assumptions of eugenics, some advocates shifted to justifications based on white supremacy. Plecker was forced to admit the lack of any scientific basis for his actions once, when he was blocked from changing the birth certificate of a woman classified as "Indian" before 1924. He wrote his primary supporter for his efforts at racial discrimination:9

In reality I have been doing a good deal of bluffing, knowing all the while that it could never be legally sustained.. This is the first time that my hand has been absolutely called.

Plecker retired in 1946 when he was 85 years old. A year later he was hit by a car while crossing a street in Richmond, and died on August 2, 1947. The race of the driver is unknown. Obituaries in the major newspapers highlighted his life with positive comments. In papers with an African-American readership, the obituaries were far less complimentary.

The Richmond Afro-American observed:10

It is a tragedy that a man with medical training should have devoted his life to trying to change human nature instead of developing new methods of healing the sick and of preventing new disease. Instead, like many another white Southerner, old Doc Plecker felt so inferior that he spent his adult life labeling colored people as inferior and otherwise mouthing his white supremacy views.

Long before Plecker, the Native American tribes had rejected the idea of just two races existing in Virginia, and sought to maintain their distinctive status as "Indians." After the Nat Turner insurrection in 1831, white Virginians increased suppression of free people of color.

That motivated the Chickahominy to obtain county-issued certificates of free birth, while the Nansemond got a new state law passed allowing them to get certificates as persons of mixed blood, not being free negroes or mulattoes. Some Pamunkey documented their status with "certificates of freedom," and in 1843 successfully rebuffed an effort to abolish what are today the Pamunkey and Mattaponi reservations because intermarriage with Negroes supposedly had eliminated their Indian character.11

Helen Rountree notes that after 1865, when inter-racial worship largely ended, the Pamunkeys established their own Baptist church separate from both white and black churches. When Virginia established a free public school system starting in 1870, separate schools were built and staffed for blacks and whites (with the white schools being far better funded).

White county officials steered the Pamunkey, Chickahominy, and other Native Americans to the black schools. However, Native Americans struggled to gain access to the white schools, or to create a third set of schools separate from both blacks and whites. Roundtree states:12

It was during the Reconstruction period that the Powhatan groups truly came to be active in opposition to some of the aims of both whites and blacks - a lonely position that has done much to help the groups maintain a unique, Indian identity.

As noted in the 1890 Census regarding the Pamunkey tribe:13

They have their own schools and will not mix socially with the blacks... If one of the tribe marries outside of his people, he must leave, and if anyone marries an Indian outside the tribe, he or she must come and dwell with the tribe. These requirements are enforced in order to preserve as far as possible the purity of the blood, and prevent the scattering of their people.

1890 Census report on Virginia Indians
1890 Census report on Virginia Indians
Source: Bureau of Census, 1890 Census, Volume 10: Report on Indians Taxed and Indians Not Taxed in the United States (except Alaska)

At the start of World War II, the Selective Service drafted men based on race. There were specific quotas for black and white men, with black draftees assigned to "colored" units in the military. Those men who draft boards did not classified as black were treated as whites, and members of various Native American tribes were assigned to "white" units together with Caucasian men.

During World War I, before passage of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, Native Americans from Virginia served with white units. To meet the requirement to classify draftees by race for World War II and to comply with Virginia law in 1940, state and local officials in Virginia decided that Native Americans with at least one-quarter Indian blood and "no ascertainable negro blood" would be classified as "white" but all others would be classified as "colored."

The Pamunkey and Mattaponi, the two tribes in Virginia with established reservations, appealed successfully and were classified as whites by the local draft boards. In Amherst County, Monacans (then referred to as "Issues") won a Federal lawsuit and were classified as "white." Some Chickahominy men were inducted as "colored," but managed to be reclassified as "white." Some Rappahannocks refused to appear for induction after being classified as "colored," but were later allowed to serve as conscientious objectors and bypassed being assigned to "white" or "colored" units.

Selective Service officials working for the Federal government, declared that inductees were entitled to designate their race. Federal judges affirmed that self-identification was valid, and the Selective Service lacked authority to reclassify inductees. At one point, for several months, draft boards forwarded inductees to US Army bases and tasked military officials to choose whether the men would be assigned to "white" or "colored" units. Military officials refused the assignment and returned those inductees. Native Americans in Virginia successfully blocked eing assigned involuntarily to "colored" units in World War II.14

Dr. Helen Roundtree's assessment of the civil rights struggle distinguishes the activist role of blacks vs. Native Americans:15

However, no Indians joined the civil rights movement in Virginia... All of the tribes, the reservation people included, still felt far too insecure about their public recognition as Indians to endanger it by seeking immediate gains through cooperation with black activists... To Indian parents, integration meant first being pushed into black schools and only secondarily equal opportunity in education.

Modern Native American leaders in Virginia consider Plecker to be a villain. He was working to extinguish a group's identity, to deny their existence, following the same eugenics and racist philosophies used by Hitler in his effort to exterminate minorities in Europe. In 2015, commenting on the day Plecker was hit by a car in 1947 (a year after he had retired), the chief of the Chickahominy stated:16

That was good for us.

even after Plecker died, the Virginia General Assembly continued to define the racial mix required to be declared a tribal Indian in Virginia
even after Plecker died, the Virginia General Assembly continued to define the racial mix required to be declared a tribal Indian in Virginia
Source: Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law, From Virginia's law books (Exhibit 12)

Race is a socially constructed concept rather than a biologically-based distinction. Racial classifications are redefined for different purposes by different generations. Virginia's Jim Crow laws establishing segregation were designed in large part to minimize the potential for inter-racial socializing, especially the sort that could lead to children. The post-Civil War Readjuster coalition between blacks and whites was broken in 1883 when opponents were able to scare white voters into thinking black political power was just a precursor to demands for social equality and miscegenation.17

Times have obviously changed. If race is based on continental ancestry and genetic isolation, then groupings like African, Caucasian (Europe and Middle East), Asian, Pacific Islander, and Native American make less and less sense as massive migrations result in genetic mixing.

After the Supreme Court ruled in 1954 in Brown vs. Board of Education that segregated schools violated the US Constitution, efforts by segregationists to stir race mixing fears lacked the political impact of 1883, and ultimately failed to block school desegregation even in Prince Edward County. During the Massive Resistance debate on how to respond to that Supreme Court decision, a focus on the doctrine of "interposition" allowed Virginia's political leaders to oppose integration based on philosophical grounds without having to justify state-sponsored social inequalities.

In Virginia, government controls to define and maintain racial purity have largely been replaced by officially-sponsored celebrations of diversity, though some Native American groups are still using "blood quantum" to help determine who will be classified as a tribal member.

In the 2010 Census, individuals could choose multiple racial categories for themselves. "Hispanic" was an ethnic category separate from race.

By 2010, approximately 15% of first marriages in the United States were between spouses of a different race or ethnicity, doubling the percentage since 1980. Virginia was the #1 state for new white/black marriages (3.3%).18

Impact of The 1924 Racial Integrity Act on Virginia's Native Americans

Melungeons in Virginia

Race in Virginia

Race and Marriage in Virginia

the percentage of residents identifying as white-only varies across Virginia
the percentage of residents identifying as "white-only" varies across Virginia
Source: IndexMundi, Virginia White Population Percentage, 2013 by County

the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics did genealogical research to proactively block negroes and Indians from registering as white
"the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics did genealogical research to proactively block "negroes" and "Indians" from registering as "white"
Source: Encyclopedia Virginia, Letter from Walter A. Plecker to Local Registrars, et al. (December 1943)

Links

the monument honoring World War I veterans at Suffolk's Cedar Hill Cemetery identified those who died in the war by race
the monument honoring World War I veterans at Suffolk's Cedar Hill Cemetery identified those who died in the war by race
the monument honoring World War I veterans at Suffolk's Cedar Hill Cemetery identified those who died in the war by race

by the time the monument honoring World War II veterans was installed at Suffolk's Cedar Hill Cemetery, it was no longer considered appropriate to segregate war dead by race
by the time the monument honoring World War II veterans was installed at Suffolk's Cedar Hill Cemetery, it was no longer considered appropriate to segregate war dead by race

References

1. "The Evolution of Slavery in Virginia, 1619 To 1661," BlackPast, January 13, 2022, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/perspectives-african-american-history/the-evolution-of-slavery-in-virginia-1619-to-1661/; Tom Costa, "Virginia Laws on Slavery and Servitude," The Geography of Slavery in Virginia, University of Virginia, http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/gos/court/laws.html; "Laws on Slavery," Virtual Jamestown, http://www.virtualjamestown.org/laws1.html#10 (last checked September 2, 2022)
2. "In Their Footsteps: Human Migration Out of Africa," National Geographic, https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/their-footsteps-human-migration-out-africa; "'Descendants of a Woman of Indian Extraction': The Story Of Rachel Findley," The UnCommonwealth blog, Library of Virginia, August 31, 2022, https://uncommonwealth.virginiamemory.com/blog/2022/08/31/descendants-of-a-woman-of-indian-extraction-the-story-of-rachel-findley/ (last checked September 3, 2022)
3. "Colored Persons and Indians Defined (1887)," Encyclopedia Virginia, https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/colored-persons-and-indians-defined-1887/ (last checked July 18, 2024)
4. "Preservation of Racial Integrity (1924)," Encyclopedia Virginia, https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/preservation-of-racial-integrity-1924/; 'An Act to amend and re-enact section 49 of the Code of Virginia, 1887 (1910)," Encyclopedia Virginia, https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/an-act-to-amend-and-re-enact-section-49-of-the-code-of-virginia-1887-1910/ (last checked July 18, 2024)
5. Richard B. Sherman, "'The Last Stand': The Fight for Racial Integrity in Virginia in the 1920s," The Journal of Southern History, Volume 54, Number 1 (February 1988), pp.70-72, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2208521 (last checked July 3, 2015)
6. Virginia General Assembly, "An Act to Preserve Racial Integrity," 1924, http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/encounter/projects/monacans/Contemporary_Monacans/racial.html (last checked May 25, 2012)
7. Mrs. Burton Harrison, Recollections Grave and Gay, 1911, http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/harrison/harrison.html (last checked May 25, 2012)
8. "The black-and-white world of Walter Ashby Plecker," The Virginian-Pilot, August 18, 2004, https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/upload/The-Black-and-White-World-of-Walter-Plecker.pdf; "Who Do You Love?: Race And Marriage In Virginia Before The Loving Decision," Virginia Memory blog, Library of Virginia, September 16, 2019, http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2019/09/16/who-do-you-love-race-and-marriage-in-virginia-before-the-loving-decision/ (last checked September 17, 2019)
9. "The Black-and-White World of Walter Ashby Plecker," The Virginian-Pilot, August 18, 2004, https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/upload/The-Black-and-White-World-of-Walter-Plecker.pdf (last checked March 16, 2020)
10. "Death of 'a devil:' The white supremacist got hit by a car. His victims celebrated," Washington Post, August 2, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/08/02/death-of-a-devil-the-white-supremacist-got-hit-by-a-car-his-victims-celebrated/?utm_term=.eca7721d58f4 (last checked February 2, 2019)
11. Helen C. Rountree, Pocahontas's People: The Powhatan Indians of Virginia Through Four Centuries, University of Oklahoma Press, 1996, pp.193-195
12. Helen C. Rountree, Pocahontas's People: The Powhatan Indians of Virginia Through Four Centuries, p.201
13. Bureau of Census, 1890 Census, Volume 10: Report on Indians Taxed and Indians Not Taxed in the United States (except Alaska), http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/decennial/1890.html (last checked May 25, 2012)
14. Paul T. Murray, "Who Is an Indian? Who Is a Negro? Virginia Indians in the World War II Draft," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 95, Number 2 (April 1987), https://www.jstor.org/stable/4248942 (last checked June 5, 2021)
15. Helen C. Rountree, Pocahontas's People: The Powhatan Indians of Virginia Through Four Centuries, p.241
16. "How a long-dead white supremacist still threatens the future of Virginia's Indian tribes," Washington Post, July 1, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/how-a-long-dead-white-supremacist-still-threatens-the-future-of-virginias-indian-tribes/2015/06/30/81be95f8-0fa4-11e5-adec-e82f8395c032_story.html (last checked February 2, 2019)
17. Jane Elizabeth Dailey, Before Jim Crow: The Politics of Race in Postemancipation Virginia, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000, p.100, http://books.google.com/books?id=1f-VbYY2n-0C&lpg=PA96&ots=N_MdPqAoBr&dq=readjuster%20coalition%20black%20social%20equality&pg=PA100#v=onepage&q=readjuster%20coalition%20black%20social%20equality&f=false (last checked May 25, 2012)
18. "The Rise of Intermarriage," Pew Charitable Trust, February 16, 2012, http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/02/16/the-rise-of-intermarriage/ (last checked May 25, 2012)

the 1924 one-drop law passed by the Virginia General Assembly
the 1924 one-drop law passed by the Virginia General Assembly
Source: Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law, From Virginia's law books (Exhibit 1)


Population of Virginia
Virginia Places