Dr. Walter Plecker’s signature on a Surgeon’s Form in a pension application folder (see Alexander Foreman, Company E) caught my eye. It presents an opportunity to talk about how bigotry and false science affected people’s lives and compromised vital records research.
Walter Ashby Plecker, M.D. (1861-1947) was the son of an enslaver and Confederate officer. He was born in Augusta County, Virginia, completed medical school at the University of Maryland, and lived for a time in Hampton, Virginia. Plecker had a particular interest in obstetrics and public health issues. He became the first registrar of Virginia’s newly created Bureau of Vital Statistics in 1912 and served until 1946. Plecker drafted and lobbied for the Racial Integrity Act of 1924 which institutionalized Virginia’s “one-drop” law and the “Pocahontas Exception.” He and his staff committed “genocide by pencil” by changing the racial identification of the First People from “Indian” to “colored.” He also lobbied the U.S. Census to change racial categories. Plecker was a co-founder of the Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America, a white supremacist organization.
For more information:
Vince Brooks and Sarah Nerney. “Who Do You Love?: Race and Marriage in Virginia Before the Loving Decision,” The Uncommonwealth, September 16, 2019
Arica L. Coleman. “From the ‘Pocahontas Exception’ to a ‘Historical Wrong’: The Hidden Cost of Formal Recognition for American Indian Tribes,” Time, February 9, 2018
John Woodrow Cox. “Death of ‘a devil’: The Virginia white supremacist got hit by a car. His victims celebrated,” The Virginian-Pilot, August 3, 2017
Tori Talbot. “Walter Ashby Plecker (1861-1947),” Encyclopedia Virginia, February 25, 2021
Virginia Department of Historic Resources. “Modern Indians A.D. 1800-Present“
All sites accessed June 21, 2021
1st U.S. Colored Cavalry 
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