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Mar. 9th, 2004 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urocyonFrom Jason Adams'Self-Determination on the Paleface Reservation; emphasis mine:
The legacy of the eugenics and paradigm extended well past the time of Plecker's and Fox's deaths, so long in fact, that state anti-miscegenation laws were not officially declared illegal until the landmark Supreme Court decision in the mid-1960?s, Loving vs. Virginia. Indeed, even as recently as 1960, Melungeon Heritage Association President Connie Clark's family was still hiding from Census takers. The mineral industry and their state supported reign of racialized terror kept Melungeon ancestry under wraps for decades (D. Wilson, personal communication, May 20, 2000).
*snort* I have to suspect that one of the reasons Plecker wasn't too successful in even listing "suspect" surnames through most of the western part of the state is that the population seemed to decline by a good 40% some places, come Census time. On the 1850 Census of Pulaski Co.--one of old Walter's favorite years--I couldn't find the relevant McCraws or Taylors, and doubt it was entirely coincidental. (OTOH, some decidedly swarthy ancestors sitting in Kentucky near Melungeon Central must not have been concerned; they consistently did turn up.)
At least putting off dealing with the Census seems to be ingrained habit, though my mother explains it by a serious aversion to deep nosiness. The forms--yes, several were sent--never got returned last time, and someone wound up coming around to the house. Its having been my dad they talked to, each of us was recorded as a different combination of ethnicities, one of which included Fiji Islander. He does like to wind people up--and I tend to approve in cases in which people insist that boxes be checked.
The legacy of the eugenics and paradigm extended well past the time of Plecker's and Fox's deaths, so long in fact, that state anti-miscegenation laws were not officially declared illegal until the landmark Supreme Court decision in the mid-1960?s, Loving vs. Virginia. Indeed, even as recently as 1960, Melungeon Heritage Association President Connie Clark's family was still hiding from Census takers. The mineral industry and their state supported reign of racialized terror kept Melungeon ancestry under wraps for decades (D. Wilson, personal communication, May 20, 2000).
*snort* I have to suspect that one of the reasons Plecker wasn't too successful in even listing "suspect" surnames through most of the western part of the state is that the population seemed to decline by a good 40% some places, come Census time. On the 1850 Census of Pulaski Co.--one of old Walter's favorite years--I couldn't find the relevant McCraws or Taylors, and doubt it was entirely coincidental. (OTOH, some decidedly swarthy ancestors sitting in Kentucky near Melungeon Central must not have been concerned; they consistently did turn up.)
At least putting off dealing with the Census seems to be ingrained habit, though my mother explains it by a serious aversion to deep nosiness. The forms--yes, several were sent--never got returned last time, and someone wound up coming around to the house. Its having been my dad they talked to, each of us was recorded as a different combination of ethnicities, one of which included Fiji Islander. He does like to wind people up--and I tend to approve in cases in which people insist that boxes be checked.