(A true story)
The letter, yellowed with age, is dated April 30th, 1924 and lies in the archives of the city of Charlottesville, Virginia. I quote it in its entirety, except for names:
Dear Madam –
We have a report of the birth of your child, July 30th, 1923, signed by ______, midwife.
She says that you are white and that the father of the child is white.
We have a correction to this certificate sent to us from the City Health Department at Lynchburg, in which they say that the father of this child is a negro.
This is to give you warning that this is a mulatto child and you cannot pass it off as white.
A new law passed by the last Legislature says that if a child has one drop of negro blood in it, it cannot be counted as white.
You will have to do something about this matter and see that this child is not allowed to mix with white children. It cannot go to white schools and can never marry a white person in Virginia.
It is an awful thing,
Yours very truly,
[Virginia State Registrar]
It is an awful thing. What was an awful thing to the State Registrar? – the mother’s false statement or her attempts to “pass” the child as white? We who read it today know the awful thing was the new law and the consequences for the child.
We who are white read this letter and are ashamed to think that our ancestors—who proclaimed themselves honorable, God-fearing citizens—probably endorsed and supported this new law or other laws and rules like it…. That, to us, is another “awful thing”.