Rockbridge County (Va.) Clerk's Correspondence (Walter A. Plecker to A. T. Shields), 1912-1943
- Creator
- Rockbridge County (Va.) Circuit Court.
- Abstract Or Scope
-
Rockbridge County (Va.) Clerk's Correspondence (Walter A. Plecker to A. T. Shields), 1912-1943, consists principally of correspondence to the Rockbridge County clerk of the circuit court Abner Terry Shields from Walter Ashby Plecker, head of the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics. The correspondence includes Vital Statistics forms and instructions, Virginia Health Bulletins about enforcing the Racial Integrity Law of 1924, a letter to the attorney general asking for clarification of procedures required by the new Racial Integrity Act about issuing marriage licenses, pamphlets about eugenics issued by Plecker and the Bureau of Vital Statistics, lists of families that Plecker considered to be of questionable racial lineage including families of Amherst and Rockbridge counties, specific inquiries from Plecker about individuals he was seeking to prove were non-white, and newspaper articles about court cases challenging the Racial Integrity Law. References exist to the cases of Dorothy Johns and Atha Sorrells who separately challenged the Racial Integrity Law in 1924.
- Collection Context