Walter Plecker
Walter Plecker | |
|---|---|
Walter Plecker at the Bureau of Vital Statistics in 1935 | |
| Registrar for the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics | |
| In office 1912–1946 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 2, 1861 Augusta County, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | August 2, 1947 (aged 86) Richmond, Virginia, U.S. |
Walter Ashby Plecker (April 2, 1861 – August 2, 1947) was an American physician and public health advocate who was the first registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital Statistics, serving from 1912 to 1946. He was a leader of the Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America, a white supremacist organization founded in Richmond, Virginia, in 1922. A eugenicist and proponent of scientific racism, Plecker drafted and lobbied for the passage of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924 by the Virginia legislature; it institutionalized the one-drop rule.
Plecker was killed after being struck by a car in 1947.