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Library of Virginia

Rockbridge County (Va.) Atha Sorrells by her next friend William Sorrells vs. A. T. Shields, Clerk of Circuit Court, 1925

Rockbridge County (Va.) Atha Sorrells by her next friend William Sorrells vs. A. T. Shields, Clerk of Circuit Court, 1925. This judgment consists of the papers related to the suit that Atha Sorrells brought against the clerk of Rockbridge circuit court after he denied her a marriage license to marry Robert Painter on the grounds that she was not a white person. The case contains her petition for a writ of mandamus to force the clerk to declare her a white person and grant her a marriage license, an order appointing William Sorrells as her next friend since she was a minor, a memorandum opinion of Judge Henry W. Holt ordering the license to issue, witness subpoenas, depositions, and correspondence and evidence related to the case including a large family tree of the Clark family from whom Altha Sorrells descended.

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Rockbridge County (Va.) Atha Sorrells by her next friend William Sorrells vs. A. T. Shields, Clerk of Circuit Court, 1925

Rockbridge County (Va.) Circuit Court.

Rockbridge County (Va.) Atha Sorrells by her next friend William Sorrells vs. A. T. Shields, Clerk of Circuit Court, 1925. This judgment consists of the papers related to the suit that Atha Sorrells brought against the clerk of Rockbridge circuit court after he denied her a marriage license to marry Robert Painter on the grounds that she was not a white person. The case contains her petition for a writ of mandamus to force the clerk to declare her a white person and grant her a marriage license, an order appointing William Sorrells as her next friend since she was a minor, a memorandum opinion of Judge Henry W. Holt ordering the license to issue, witness subpoenas, depositions, and correspondence and evidence related to the case including a large family tree of the Clark family from whom Altha Sorrells descended.

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