Who bankrolled the early days of 'race science'? And who backs that movement today?
Wickliffe Draper spent his inheritance helping to skew the science of human difference. That mission continues.
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Wickliffe Draper spent his inheritance helping to skew the science of human difference. That mission continues.
SUMMARY Walter Ashby Plecker was a physician and the first Virginia state registrar of vital statistics, a position he served in from 1912 to 1946. He was a staunch promoter of eugenics, a discredited movement aimed at scientifically proving white racial superiority and thereby justifying the marginalizing of non-white people. Employing Virginia’s Act to Preserve Racial Integrity (1924), Plecker effectively separated Virginia citizens into two simplified racial categories: white and colored. The law, which remained in effect until 1967, when it was overturned by the United States Supreme Co...