Racial Integrity Law of 1924
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The United States Racial Integrity Law of 1924 says as follows:
Senate bill 219 (S B 219) was approved on March 20, 1924. The true title of the bill is: An ACT to preserve racial integrity. It reads:
- 1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the State registrar of vital statistics may, as soon as practicable after the taking effect of this act, prepare a form whereon the racial composition of any individual, as Caucasian, Negro, Mongolian, American Indian, Asiatic Indian, Malay, or any mixture thereof, or any other non-Caucasic strains, and if there be any mixture, then, the racial composition of the parents and other ancestors, in so far as ascertainable, so as to show in what generation such mixture occurred, may be certified by such individual, which form shall be known as a registration certificate. The State registrar may supply to each local registrar a sufficient number of such forms for the purpose of this act; each local registrar may; personally or by deputy, as soon as possible after receiving such forms, have made thereon in duplicate a certificate of the racial composition, as aforesaid, of each person resident in his district, who so desires, born before June 14, 1912, which certificate shall be made over the signature of said person, or in the case of children under fourteen years of age, over the signature of a parent, guardian, or other person standing in loco parentis. One of said certificates for each person thus registering in every district shall be forwarded to the State registrar for his files; the other shall be kept on file by the local registrar.
- Every local registrar may, as soon as practicable, have such registration certificate made by or for each person in his district who so desires, born before June 14, 1912, for whom he has not on file a registration certificate, or a birth certificate.
- 2. It shall be a felony for any person wilfully or knowingly to make a registration certificate false as to color or race. The wilful making of a false registration or birth certificate shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for one year.
- 3. For each registration certificate properly made and returned to the State registrar, the local registrar returning the same shall be entitled to a fee of twenty-five cents, to be paid by the registrant. Application for registration and for transcript may be made direct to the State registrar, who may retain the fee for expenses of his office.
- 4. No marriage license shall be granted until the clerk or deputy clerk has reasonable assurance that the statements as to color of both man and woman are correct.
- If there is reasonable cause to disbelieve that applicants are of pure white race, when that fact is stated, the clerk or deputy clerk shall withhold the granting of the license until satisfactory proof is produced that both applicants are "white persons" as provided for in this act.
- The clerk or deputy clerk shall use the same care to assure himself that both applicants are colored, when that fact is claimed.
- 5. It shall hereafter be unlawful for any white person in this State to marry any save a white person, or a person with no other admixture of blood than white and American Indian. For the purpose of this act, the term "white person" shall apply only to the person who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian; but persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the blood of the American Indian and have no other non-Caucasic blood shall be deemed to be white persons. All laws heretofore passed and now in effect regarding the intermarriage of white and colored persons shall apply to marriages prohibited by this act.
- 6. For carrying out the purposes of this act and to provide the necessary clerical assistance, postage and other expenses of the State registrar of vital statistics, twenty per cent of the fees received by local registrars under this act shall be paid to the State bureau of vital statistics, which may be expended by the said bureau for the purposes of this act.
- 7. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are, to the extent of such inconsistency, hereby repealed.
In the original document, the paragraphs are indented at the numerals and at three other places. S B 219 is a separate law from S B 281, which was also approved on March 20, 1924 (along with other ACTs). S B 281 is titled: An ACT to provide for the sexual sterilization of inmates of State institutions in certain cases. In some instances, those two bills have erroneously been regarded as being one law.
In February, 1926, the Washington Post reported that an attempt to amend S B 219 was in progress. The item may be purchased from the Washington Post over the Internet for 295 pennies. Currently, the copyright laws of the United States prohibit the reproduction of materials which are less than 96 years old. The attempted amendment of 1926 may be the source of the One drop theory. The tiniest amount of "nonwhite" blood would have guaranteed that a person was "colored" under the amendment.
Stimuli
Wisconsin was the first State to enact legislation that required the medical certification of persons who applied for marriage licenses. The law that was enacted in 1913 generated attempts at similar legislation in other States. By 1924, 15 States had enacted similar legislation; however, unlike Virginia, many or most or all of those States failed to rigidly enforce their laws requiring specific qualities in all persons seeking to marry.
Amongst nations, Sweden became the first nation to closely inspect the lineages of its peasants. By 1924, Professor Lundborg was directing those efforts.
After the end of World War One, many nations around the world engaged in similar studies, but less thoroughly or to a lesser degree than Sweden.
Perspective
Eugenics heritage Precursive activities which inexorably led to the Racial Integrity Law of 1924 began in England in the 18th century. English physician and naturalist Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) had published, in prose, his Zoönomia (1794-96), expressing revolutionary ideas which contrasted sharply with the theocratic views of the times. Erasmus Darwin believed that all animals transmit many of their traits to their descendants. In 1859, Charles Robert Darwin (1809-92), a grandson of Erasmus Darwin, created much interest with his book, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle of Life.
Violetta, the eldest daughter of Erasmus Darwin, gave birth to a son, Francis Galton (1822-1911). He traveled extensively in Africa, from Egypt to Damaraland (Namibia). Sir Francis Galton produced two famous articles on "Heredity, Talent and Character" which appeared in the July and August, 1865 issues of Macmillans Magazine. The two articles may be said to have definitely inaugurated the attempt to apply biological theories to the practical problem of the improvement of the human race. Human beings had practiced the selective breeding of plants and animals for many centuries.
Sir Francis Galton first employed the word "eugenics." His monumental work, Hereditary Genius, appeared in 1869. By 1900, the work of the two grandsons of Erasmus Darwin had been studied and accepted by many people. In 1900, the forgotten 1866 laws of Gregor Johann Mendel were rediscovered. The fundamental doctrine of eugenics is that of selection. In the United States, the segregation of human beings by race attempted to keep Caucasians from selecting Negroes as mates. Much attention was directed towards the aboriginal peoples, as well.
Eugenicists and ethnologists became very active after 1900. In 1905, Sir Francis Galton established a laboratory for eugenics at University College, London. He was knighted in 1909. He died January 17, 1911. Many books and other publications were produced in Europe and in America. Important men such as President Wilson(1856-1924) embraced racial separation or the making of laws such as the Racial Integrity Law of 1924. In 1924, Virginia enacted Senate Bill 219. More than one provision or specification was used to compose the law..
An exacerbating amendment or series of statutes to the Racial Integrity Law of 1924 was under consideration by the General Assembly in February, 1926. If adopted, the legislation would have brought the reclassification of thousands of "white" people. They would have became either "colored" or "nonwhite." Two former Governors would have been reclassified to being either "colored" or "nonwhite." The Racial Integrity Law began to crumble on June 12, 1967 when the United States Supreme Court decided Loving v. Virginia. The portion of the law which had prohibited marriages between "whites" and "nonwhites" was found to be contrary to the guarantees of the 14th amendment to the United States Constitution. In 1975, Virginia's General Assembly repealed the rest of the Racial Integrity Act. In 2001, a bill (HJ607ER) passed by a vote of 85-10 in the House and 40-0 in the Senate. The bill expressed the General Assembly's profound regret for its role in the eugenics movement. On May 2, 2002, Governor Mark Warner made several statements, amongst which are these: "In 1924, Virginia, like many other states, passed a law permitting involuntary sterilization. In 1927, Carrie Buck was the first person sterilized by the Commonwealth pursuant to that Law." "Last year the General Assembly passed a resolution expressing profound regret for the Commonwealth's role in the eugenics movement."
