Home » Tools for Research

1929 Plecker Pamphlet

Legal Percentages of "Negro Blood"

Amount of Negro and Other Colored Blood Illegal in Various States for Marriage to Whites: 1929
Walter A. Plecker
Walter Ashby Plecker was the head of Virginia’s Bureau of Vital Statistics from 1912 to 1936. He believed “there is a danger of the ultimate disappearance of the white race in Virginia, and the country, and the substitution therefor of another brown skin, as has occurred in every other country where the two races have lived together.” Plecker believed this “mongrelization,” resulted in the downfall of several earlier civilizations. He used the 1924 Racial Integrity Act to classify Virginia Indians and mixed-race individuals as "colored," and therefore denied basic civil rights under Virginia's system of segregation.

Source: University of Albany, SUNY, Estabrook, SPE,XMS 80.9 Bx 2 C18. Used by permission.

by W.A. Plecker, Eugenical News (vol. 14:8)

Legal Limits of Negro and Other Colored Blood In Colored-White Marriages.

Dr. W. A. Plecker, Registrar of Vital Statistics of the Commonwealth of Virginia, who has been the principal leader in the recent movement to secure the enactment of the so-called Racial Integrity Laws by several states, has compiled the accompanying table showing the present status of legislation in reference to the legal limits of intermarriages between the white and colored races.

None Permissible

1. Alabama

2. Georgia (or W. Indian, Asiatic Indian or Mongolian) New Act not being enforced for lack of appropriation

3. Virginia

Negro or Negro Descent

1. Arizona (or Mongolian-Indian) Caucasian or descendants with Negro, Mongolian, Indian and descendants.

2. Louisiana (or Indian) Persons of color include those belonging in whole or in part to the African race

3. Montana (or Negro - Chinese - Japanese in whole or in part)

4. Nevada (or brown-yellow-red races)

5. Oklahoma (Persons of African descent with persons not of African descent whether white or Indian)

6. South Dakota (or Korean - Malay - Mongolian)

7. Utah (or Mongolian)

8. West Virginia

1/8

1. Florida

2. Indiana

3. Maryland

4. Mississippi (or Mongolian)

5. Missouri (or Mongolian)

6. Nebraska (1/8 Japanese or Chinese)

7. North Carolina (or Indian)

8. North Dakota

9. South Carolina (or Indian)

10. Tennessee

11. Texas

1/4

1. Kentucky (if one grandparent was a Negro, or a white woman with a "colored" man)

2. Oregon (or Mongolian, or white with one more one-half Indian)

Mulattoes ½

1. Arkansas

2. California (or Mongolian)

3. Colorado

4. Delaware

5. Idaho (or Mongolian)

6. Wyoming (or Mongolian or Malay)

No Restriction

1. Connecticut

2. District of Columbia

3. Illinois

4. Iowa

5. Kansas

6. Maine (an act of 1786 made marriage of a white person and negro or mulatto void)

7. Massachusetts (A former Act made marriage of a white and negro or mulatto illegal)

8. Michigan (Mixed marriage formerly void now legal)

9. Minnesota

10. New Hampshire

11. New Jersey

12. New Mexico

13. New York

14. Ohio (A former statute forbade marriage of a pure white and a person of visibly African blood)

15. Pennsylvania

16. Rhode Island

17. Vermont

18. Washington

19. Wisconsin