Walter Ashby Plecker was a physician and public health advocate who was the first registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital Statistics. Plecker graduated from Hoover Military Academy in 1880 and obtained a medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1885. He settled in Hampton, Virginia in 1892, and became its public health officer in 1902.

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  • Walter Ashby Plecker was a physician and public health advocate who was the first registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital Statistics. Plecker graduated from Hoover Military Academy in 1880 and obtained a medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1885. He settled in Hampton, Virginia in 1892, and became its public health officer in 1902. He took an active interest in obstetrics and public health issues, educating midwives, inventing a home incubator, and prescribing home remedies for infants. His efforts are credited with an almost 50% decline in birthing deaths for black mothers. From 1912 to 1946, Plecker served as the first registrar of Virginia's newly-created Bureau of Vital Statistics. An avowed white supremacist and advocate of eugenics, Plecker believed that the state's Native Americans had been "mongrelized" with its African American population. A law passed by the state's General Assembly in 1924, "The Racial Integrity Act," recognized only two races, "white" and "colored. " Plecker believed that "colored" people were attempting to pass as "Indian. " Plecker's policies pressured required state agencies to reclassify most citizens claiming Indian identity as "colored. " This policy has left a modern-day legacy where Virginia "tribes" struggle to achieve federal recognition because they cannot prove their heritage as required by federal laws.
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  • Walter Ashby Plecker was a physician and public health advocate who was the first registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital Statistics. Plecker graduated from Hoover Military Academy in 1880 and obtained a medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1885. He settled in Hampton, Virginia in 1892, and became its public health officer in 1902.
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  • Walter Ashby Plecker
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