Virginia Racial Integrity Act: Eugenics and the One-Drop Rule Codified

Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924, signed March 20, 1924, was part of an integrated legislative package with the Eugenical Sterilization Act. Walter Plecker, Virginia's registrar of vital statistics, enforced the law by reclassifying Native Americans with any Black ancestry as 'colored,' effectively erasing Indigenous identity in Virginia for decades — a practice he called 'racial cleansing.' Plecker sent threatening letters to families, hospitals, and registrars across Virginia. The law was explicitly cited as a model in Nazi Germany's Nuremberg Laws of 1935.