4 Reasons Why Virginia's Recent Statement of "Profound Regret" Isn't Enough

3 of Virginias Most Notorious Eugenicists Led the Development of Race Policy

"Brown vs Board of Ed" (1953) Linda Brown and others in the landmark challenge to school segregation. Courtesy of The National Archives.gov, Reference Information Paper 112

Courtesy of The National Archives.gov, Reference Information Paper 112

• Harry H. Laughlin - Director of the Commission of the American Genetic Association and Director of Carnegie's Cold Spring Harbor eugenics department, consulted on development of the three 1924 Acts. In 1928, he addressed the International Federation of Eugenics Organizations in Munich Germany and stunned Germans by unveiling his proposal that the lowest 10 percent of the U.S. population be forcibly sterilized in order to "eradicate" people posing a genetic impurity threat to white society.
  
  
• Margaret Sanger outlined a "Plan for Peace" in 1932 which demanded the state force sterilization and isolate segments of the population with "unwelcome hereditary traits." Court records, including Buck vs Bell show that over 60,000 people were authorized for sterilization with the approval of liberals and conservatives seeking a "pure" white America. Many died during the operation. In addition, over 60 children were castrated. Note: The Buck vs. Bell precedent allowing sterilization of the "feebleminded" has never been overruled. Also note that Virginia will not release the surnames of victims of forced sterilization, citing a law "which exempts from disclosure medical and mental records."
  
  
• Dr. W.A. Plecker, a notorious eugenicist and employee of the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics, referred to "mongrels" when creating a blacklist of Melungeon (a mixed people of unknown origin, perhaps tri-racial – black, white and Native American) surnames. The definition of biologically dysgenic or defective people, for the purposes of the Racial Purity Act, was expanded to now include people whose only "defect" was one drop of African blood. Entire mixed communities were considered for sterilization as if they were animals. Even women who gave birth to "colored" babies became candidates for sterilization.

Index: 4 Reasons Why Virginia's Recent Statement of "Profound Regret" Isn't Enough

1. The Origin of Slavery Lies in Virginia
2. Virginias Racial Oppression Did Not End with The Abolition of Slavery
3. Virginias Racial Oppression Did Not End with The Abolition of Slavery Cont'd
4. 3 of Virginias Most Notorious Eugenicists Led the Development of Race Policy
5. The Virginia-Nazi Germany Alliance and Competition for Whiteness