War Against the Weak

by Edwin Black

  15. Howe, “Relation of Hereditary Eye Defects to Genetics and Eugenics,” pp. 381, 382.

  16. Letter, Banker to Arps, 6 January 1921.

  17. Letter, Banker to Arps, 6 January 1921.

  18. Eugenics Record Office, “Copy — List of Geneticists,” circa 1921: APS 77 Series V.

  19. Letter, Raymond Pearl to Howard J. Banker, 11 January 1921: APS 77 Series I.

  20. Eugenics Record Office, “List of Fellows of the American Medical Association Registered in the Section on Ophthalmology, 1919,” circa 1921: APS 77 Series V.

  21. To Amend the Domestic Relations Law, In Relation to Prevention of Hereditary Blindness, New York (1921), Bill 1597: APS 77 Series X, HHL Box #3, Hereditary Blindness Research Materials (1921-1928).

  22. American Medical Association, “Hereditary Eye Defects and Blindness Central Committee,” (n.p., circa March 1921): APS 77 ERO Series X.

  23. Letter, O.E. Koegel to Dr. Lucien Howe, 7 September 1921: APS 77 Series X. Letter, Leonard W. H. Gibbs to Dr. Lucien Howe, 15 September 1921: APS 77 Series X. Letter, Dr. Hermann M. Biggs to Dr. Lucien Howe, 16 September 1921: APS 77 Series X. Letter, H. S. Birkett to Dr. Lucien Howe, 16 September 1921: APS 77 Series X. Letter, Frank H. Lattin to Dr. Lucien Howe, circa September 1921: APS 77 Series X. Also see Letter, Dr. Lucien Howe to Dr. Harry H. Laughlin, 12July 1921: APS 77 Series X.

  24. Letter, Koegel to Howe, 7 September 1921. Letter, Gibbs to Howe, 15 September 1921. Letter, Biggs to Howe, 16 September 1921. Letter, Birkett to Howe, 16 September 1921. Letter, Lattin to Howe, circa September 1921. Author’s notes on APS ERO files.

  25. Letter, Lucien Howe to Harry H. Laughlin, 12 January 1922: APS 77 Series I.

  26. Howe to Laughlin, 12 January 1922.

  27. Letter, Lucien Howe to Harry H. Laughlin, 22 July 1922: APS 77 Series I.

  28. Howe to Laughlin, 22 July 1922.

  29. Howe to Laughlin, 22 July 1922.

  30. Letter, Harry H. Laughlin to Lucien Howe, 7 August 1922: APS 77 Series I. Letter, Lucien Howe to Harry H. Laughlin, 28 August 1922: APS 77 Series I.

  31. Letter, Howe to Laughlin, 28 August 192 2.

  32. Letter, Lucien Howe to Charles B. Davenport and Harry H. Laughlin, 10 February 1923: APS 77 Series I. “Memorandum on the Institutional Cost of the Blind and the Economic Cost of the Blind in the Population at Large”, enclosure to Howe to Davenport and Laughlin, 10 February 1923: APS 77 Series I.

  33. Howe to Davenport and Laughlin, 10 February 1923.

  34. J. P. Chamberlain, “Current Legislation: Eugenics and Limitations of Marriage,” American Bar Association Journal, 1923, pp. 429-430.

  35. To Amend the Domestic Relations Law, In Relation to Prevention of Hereditary Blindness, New York (1926), Bill 605: APS 77 Series X, Harry H. Laughlin Box #3, Hereditary Blindness Research Materials (1921-1928). Letter, Lucien Howe to Dr. Best, 4 October 1927: APS 77 Series V. Also see Letter, Edward G. Seiben to Lucien Howe, 15 July 1927: APS 77 Series V.

  36. Bill 605. “Abstracts of Papers,” p. 114. Consumer Price Index Calculator at www.jsc.nasa.gov. “Memorandum on the General Principle of Bonding Applicants for Marriage License Against the Production of OffSpring Who Would Become Public Charges”, memo, ca. 1928: Truman E-I-2:8.

  37. Letter, Harry H. Laughlin to Lucien Howe, 30 March 1921: APS 77 Series I. “Memorandum,” p 3.

  38. Letter, Harry H. Laughlin to Lucien Howe, 4 May 1922: APS 77 Series I. Letter, Lucien Howe to Harry H. Laughlin, 14 April 1922: APS ERO Series X: Hereditary Blindness Corresp.

  39. Letter, Harry H. Laughlin to Lucien Howe, 30 December 1922: APS 77 Series I: PDR & Correspondence.

  40. Bill 605. “Abstracts of Papers,” p. 114.

  41. “Memorandum,” pp 2, 4.

  42. Laughlin to Howe, 30 March 1921.

  43. Letter, Harry H. Laughlin to Lucien Howe, 5 December 1922: APS 77 Series: I. Laughlin to Howe, 30 December 1922.

  44. Letter, Harry H. Laughlin to Lucien Howe, 9 March 1925: APS 77 Series I: PDR & Correspondence.

  45. “Eugenical Responsibility,” Eugenical News, Vol. XVI (1931), pp. 45, 46.

  46. “Eugenical Responsibility,” p. 46.

  47. “Eugenical Responsibility,” pp. 46-47.

  48. “Eugenical Responsibility,” p. 47.

  49. “Death of Dr. Lucien Howe.” Newell, p. 155.

  CHAPTER NINE

  1. Harry H. Laughlin, “Population Schedule for the Census of 1920,” Journal of Heredity, Vol. X, No.5 (May 1919), p. 208.

  2. U. S. Department of Commerce, Statistical Directory of State Institutiom for the Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1919), p. 5.

  3. See U.S. Department of Commerce, “Report on the Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes,” as referenced by University of Wisconsin, “Study Report,” DPLS Catalog of Holdings at www.wisc.edu. See Documents Service Center, “Decennial Census Information: 1880 Census — Detailed Holdings,” at www.columbia.edu. Harry H. Laughlin, “The Socially Inadequate: How Shall We Designate and Sort Them?” The American Journal of Sociology Vol. XXVII No.1 July 1921) reprinted in Harry Laughlin Reprints (Washington, DC: Carnegie Institute of Washington, n.d.), pp. 54, 55-56, 68.

  4. Laughlin, “Socially Inadequate,” p. 68. Letter, Joseph A. Hill to Harry H. Laughlin, 2 January 1918: Truman D-4-5:5.

  5. Laughlin, “Socially Inadequate,” pp. 57, 62, 67-68. Hill to Laughlin, 2 January 1918.

  6. Hill to Laughlin, 2 January 1918. See Harry H. Laughlin, Statistical Directory of State Institution for the Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1919). Laughlin, “Socially Inadequate,” pp. 54, 57-67,68.

  7. Letter, Harry H. Laughlin to Samuel L. Rogers, 20 December 1918: Truman C-4-2:6. Letter, Samuel L. Rogers to Harry H. Laughlin, 23 December 1918: Truman C-4-2:6. See letter, Harry H. Laughlin to William M. Steuart, 22 May 1929: Truman E-2-2:8. Also see letter, Harry H. Laughlin to Irving Fisher, 23 February 1928: Truman D-2-3:22.

  8. Laughlin, “Population Schedule,” pp. 208-209. Eugenic Research Association, “Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Eugenics Research Association Tuesday, Feb. 18, 1919,” Truman ERA Minutes Vol. 2 (n.p., 1919), p. 2. See IPUMS-USA, “1910 Sampling Procedures,” at www.ipums.umn.edu.

  9. Laughlin, “Population Schedule,” p. 209. Hill to Laughlin, 2 January 1918.

  10. See letter, Julia C. Lathrop to Elizabeth B. Muncey, 17 February 1916: APS Series I A:015-T. See “The Federal Census Schedule,” Eugenical News Vol. V (1920), pp. 36-37. See “Eugenical Significance of Individual Records,” Eugenical News Vol. XIII (1928), pp. 8-9. See “A Needed Amendment of the Census Bill: 1929,” Eugenical News Vol. XIV (1929), pp. 53-55. See letter, Harry H. Laughlin to Lewis W. Douglas, 11 April 1929: Truman C-4-6:17. See letter, Harry H. Laughlin to William M. Steuart, 12 April 1929: Truman E-2-2:8. See letter, Harry H. Laughlin to William M. Steuart, 22 May 1929: Truman E-2-2:8. See “Present Status of the Proposed ‘Race-Descent’ Item in the Census Population Schedule,” Eugenical News VoI.XIV (1929), pp. 138-139.

  11. Harry H. Laughlin, Classification Standards to be Followed in Preparing Data for the Schedule “Racial and Diagnostic Records of Inmates of State Institutiom, (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1922), p. 4: Truman C-4-6: 16. J. David Smith, The Eugenic Assault on America: Scenes in Red, White, and Black (Fairfax, VA: George Mason University Press, 1993), p. 60.

  12. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Editor, Survey Graphic, 13 March 1925: UVA Library 7284A Powell Papers, Box 56, Folder 1925.7284A.

  13. Loyd Thompson and Winfield Scott Downs, ed., Who’s Who in American Medicine 1925 (New York: Who’s Who Publications, Inc., 1925), s.v. “Plecker, Walter Ashby.” Smith, p. 60. See Joan Charles, Elizabeth City County, Virginia Will 1800-1859, (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books,lnc., n.d.). See Blanche Adams Chapman, Wills and Administration of Elizabeth City County, Virginia 1688-1800 (1980, n.p.). See author’s notes on established sources of Elizabeth C
ity County genealogical records.

  14. Smith, p. 60. Walter A. Plecker, “The 1930 U.S. Census,” n.p., n.d.: Truman 0-4-3:12. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Harry H. Laughlin, 24 November 1928: Truman 0-4-3:12.

  15. Smith, pp. 60-61. Richard B. Sherman, “‘The Last Stand’: The Fight for Racial Integrity in Virginia in the 1920’s,” The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 54 Issue I (February, 1988), p. 78.

  16. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Eugenics in Relation to the New Family and the Law on Racial Integrity, (Richmond: Supt. Public Printing, 1924), p. 26.

  17. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Madison Grant, 13 January 1928: Truman 0-4-3:12. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Harry H. Laughlin, 17 November 1930: Truman 0-4-3:12.

  18. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Harry H. Laughlin, 25 February 1928: Truman 0-4-3 :12.

  19. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Undertakers of Virginia, July 1921: Library of Virginia -Richmond. See Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Harry Davis, 4 October 1924: UVA Library 7284A Powell Papers, Box 56, Folder 1924 #2.

  20. Plecker to Grant, 13 January 1928.

  21. Plecker to Grant, 13 January 1928.

  22. Charles B. Davenport, Eugenics Record Office Bulletin No.9: State Laws Limiting Marriage Selection Examined in the Light of Eugenics (Cold Spring Harbor, New York: Eugenics Record Office, 1913), pp. 43-66. Walter A. Plecker, Virginia’s Vanished Race, (n.p.: July 1947): UVA Library Broadside 1947. W. A. Plecker, Arthur Estabrook and Ivan E. McDougle, Mongrel Virginians: The Win Tribe (Baltimore: The Williams & Wilkins Company, 1926), p. 145.

  23. “Racial Integrity,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, 18 February 1924. Sherman, p. 81. Philip Reilly, “The Virginia Racial Integrity Act Revisited: The Plecker-Laughlin Correspondence: 1928-1930,” American Journal of Medical Genetics Vol. 16 (1983), p. 486. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Harry H. Laughlin, 19 March 1930: Truman 0-4-3:12.

  24. Smith, pp. 16-17. Sherman, pp. 73-74.

  25. The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project, UCLA” American Series Introduction: Volume VI: September 1924 — December 1927)” at www.isop.ucla.edu. “Nuclei,” Eugenical News Vol. IX (1924), p. 8. “White America,” Eugenical News Vol. IX (1924), p. 3.

  26. John Powell, A Breach in the Dike: An Analysis of the Sorrells Case Showing the Danger to Racial Integrity from Intermarriage of Whites with So-Called Indians (Richmond, n.d.), p. 3 as cited by Sherman, p. 81. Sherman, p. 79.

  27. Smith, p. 59. Sherman, p. 77. Virginia Department of Health, “The New Virginia Law to Preserve Racial Integrity,” Virginia Health Bulletin, Vol. XVI Extra No.2 (March 1924), p. 4.

  28. John Powell and E.S. Cox, “Is White America to Become a Negroid Nation?” Richmond Times-Dispatch, 22 July 1923. “Editorial: Racial Integrity,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, 22 July 1923.

  29. “Powell Asks Law Guarding Racial Purity,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, 13 February 1924.

  30. “Racial Integrity,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, 18 February 1924.

  31. Sherman, pp. 77-78. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Reverend Wendell White, 10 May 1924: UVA Library 7284A Powell Papers, Box 56, Folder 1924 #1. Plecker to Davis, 4 October 1924.

  32. “Against Miscegenation,” Eugenical News, Vol. IX (1924), p. 48. Virginia Department of Health, “The New Virginia Law to Preserve Racial Integrity.” Smith, p. 20.

  33. Virginia Department of Health, “Instructions to Local Registrars and Other Agents In Administration of the Law,” Virginia Health Bulletin, Vol. XVI Extra No. 1 (March 1924), pp. 1, 2, attached sample record card.

  34. “The New Virginia Law to Preserve Racial Integrity,” pp. 1, 2, 4.

  35. Plecker to Davis, 4 October 1924.

  36. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Mrs. Robert H. Cheatham and Mrs. Mary Gildon, 30 April 1924: UVA Library 7284A Powell Papers, Box 56, Folder 1924 #1.

  37. Plecker to Cheatham and Gildon, 30 April 1924.

  38. Plecker to Cheatham and Gildon, 30 April 1924.

  39. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to W. H. Clark, 29 July 1924: UVA Library 7284A Powell Papers, Box 56, Folder 1924 #1.

  40. Plecker to Clark, 29 July 1924.

  41. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Pal S. Beverly, 12 October 1929: Truman 0-4-3:12.

  42. Plecker to Beverly, 12 October 1929.

  43. Plecker to Beverly, 12 October 1929.

  44. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Mascott Hamilton, 10 October 1930: Truman 0-4-3:12.

  45. Plecker to Hamilton, 10 October 1930.

  46. Plecker to Hamilton, 10 October 1930.

  47. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Mrs. Franke. Clark, I May 1930: Truman 0-4-3:12.

  48. Plecker to Mrs. Frank C. Clark, 1 May 1930.

  49. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Harry H. Laughlin, 24 May 1929: Truman 0-4-3: 12.

  50. Smith, pp. 66-67.

  51. Plecker to Laughlin, 24 November 1928.

  52. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Dr. H. V. Fitzgerald, County School Board, 11 July 1940: UVA Library 7284A Powell Papers, Box 56, Folder 1940 #4. Plecker to Laughlin, 17 November 1930. Smith, p. 67.

  53. Plecker to Fitzgerald, 11 July 1940.

  54. Smith, pp. 93-94.

  55. Bureau of Vital Statistics, State Board of Health, The New Family and Race Improvement, (Richmond, VA: Bureau of Vital Statistics, 1925), p. 3. “Report of the Bureau of Vital Statistics State Board of Health to the Governor of Virginia,” Virginia Health Bulletin Vol. XIX, No. 1, (January 1927), pp. 9-10.

  56. Eugenics in Relation to the New Family, pp. 6-7.

  57. Walter A. Plecker, “Virginia’s Effort to Preserve Racial Integrity,“ A Decade of Progress in Eugenics: Scientific Papers of the Third International Congress of Eugenics (Baltimore: The Williams & Wilkins Company, 1934), p. 105. “The Twenty Second Annual Meeting of the Eugenics Research Association: Virginia’s Methods of Research in Racial Integrity,” Eugenical News, Vol. XX (1935), p. 25. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Harry H. Laughlin, 12 December 1928: Truman D-4-3:12. Letter, Harry H. Laughlin to Walter A. Plecker, 18 May 1929: Truman D-4-3: 12. Letter, Harry H. Laughlin to Walter A. Plecker, 17 March 1930: Truman D-4-3:12. Plecker to Laughlin, 19 March 1930. Walter A. Plecker, “Race Mixture and the Next Census,” Eugenics Vol. II No. 3 (March 1929), p. 1.

  58. Walter A. Plecker, “Virginia’s Attempt to Adjust the Color Problem,” Journal of American Public Health (1925), pp. 111, 114.

  59. Plecker, “The 1930 U.S. Census.”

  60. Letter, John Powell to George H. Roberts, 28 February 1925: UVA Library 7284A Powell Papers, Box 56, Folder 1925. Plecker to White, 10 May 1924.

  61. Powell to Roberts, 28 February 1925.

  62. Plecker to Davis, 4 October 1924. Plecker to Laughlin, 12 December 1928. Plecker to White, 10 May 1924.

  63. Plecker to Laughlin, 24 May 1929. See letter, Walter A. Plecker to Harry H. Laughlin, 26 June 1928: Truman D-4-3 :12. See Wisconsin (1929), Bill 409 S: Truman D-4-3:12. See chart attached to letter, Walter A. Plecker to Madison Grant, 18 June 1931 : Truman D-4-3:12 as compared to Davenport pp. 43-66. Letter, Harry H. Laughlin to Walter A. Plecker, 22 November 1928: Truman D-4-3:12. Laughlin to Plecker, 18 May 1929.

  64. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to A. H. Crismond, 21 August 1940: UVA Library 7284A Powell Papers, Box 56, Folder 1940 #4.

  65. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Luke M. Smith, 3 September 1940: UVA Library 72 84A Powell Papers, Box 56, Folder 1940 #4. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to Samuel L. Adams, II December 1924: UVA Library 7284A Powell Papers, Box 56, Folder 1924 #2. Eugenics in Relation to the New Family, p. 22.

  66. Stuart E. Brown, Jr., Lorraine F. Myers and Eileen M. Chappel, Pocahontas’ Descendants (Baltimore, MD: The Pocahontas Foundation, 1985), pp. iii, 347,409,410,421,426,442.

  67. See University of Wisconsin, “Help Files-Genealogical Research Using U.S. Census Data,” at www.uwm.edu. See U.S. Department of Commerce, “1860 Census: Instructions to the Marshals” at www.ipums.umn.edu as compared to U.S. Department of Commerce, “1870 Census: Instructions to the Marshals” at www.ipums.umn.edu as compared to U.S. Department of Commerce,
“1880 Census: Instructions to the Marshals” at www.ipums.umn.edu as compared to U.S. Department of Commerce, “1890 Census: Instructions to the Marshals” at www.ipums.umn.edu as compared to U.S. Department of Commerce, “1900 Census: Instructions to the Marshals” at www.ipums.umn.edu as compared to U.S. Department of Commerce, “1910 Census: Instructions to the Marshals” at www.ipurns.umn.edu. See “The Most Prolific People in the United States,” Eugenical News Vol. XXIII (1938), pp. 29-31. See “American Indians Made Citizens,” Eugenical News Vol. IX (1924), p. 73. See Library of Congress, “Today in History,” at memory.loc.gov.

  68. Plecker to Davis, 4 October 1924. Department of Commerce, “U.S. Census Estimate of Indians in Virginia, Vol. Ill, 1920 Population,” n.d.: UVA Library 7284A Powell Papers, Box 56, Folder 1921. See Plecker to Adams, 11 December 1924.

  69. Plecker to Davis, 4 October 1924.

  70. Reclaiming our Heritage, prod. Sharon Bryant, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 1997, videocassette. Estabrook and McDougle, p. 145.

  71. Plecker to Davis, 4 October 1924. “Abstracts of Papers at 1934 ERA Meeting,” Eugenical News, Vol. XX (1935), p. 25.

  72. Plecker to W. H. Clark, 29 July 1924.

  73. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to A. P. Bohannon, 3 May 1938: UVA Library 7284A Powell Papers, Box 56, Folder 1938 #4.

  74. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to R. S. Major, 28 August 1942: UVA Library 7284A Powell Papers, Box 56, Folder 1942 #4.

  75. Letter, Walter A. Plecker to William E. Bradby, 2 February 1942: UVA Library 7284A Powell Papers, Box 56, Folder 1942 #4.

  76. Estabrook and McDougle, p. 15. See Plecker to Davis, 4 October 1924.

  77. “Mongrel Virginians,” Eugenical News Vol. XI (1926), p. 70. The Wilkins & Wilkins Company, “Mongrel Virginians,” (Baltimore: The Williams & Wilkins Company, circa 1926): Truman E-2-2. Estabrook and McDougle, pp. 3,8. See Estabrook and McDougle, pp. 13, 177.

  78. Estabrook and McDougle, pp. 13,14.

  79. Estabrook and McDougle, pp. 199-200.

  80. Estabrook and McDougle, p. 201.

  81. Estabrook and McDougle, p. 202.