That the Blood Stay Pure: African Americans, Native Americans, and the Predicament of Race and Identity in Virginia

by Arica L. Coleman

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2014 That the Blood Stay Pure traces the history and legacy of the commonwealth of Virginia’s effort to maintain racial purity and its impact on the relations between African Americans and Native Americans. Arica L. Coleman tells the story of Virginia’s racial purity campaign from the perspective of those who were disavowed or expelled from tribal communities due to their affiliation with people of African descent or because their physical attributes linked them to those of African ancestry. Coleman also explores the social consequences of the racial purity ethos for tribal communities that have refused to define Indian identity based on a denial of blackness. This rich interdisciplinary history, which includes contemporary case studies, addresses a neglected aspect of America’s long struggle with race and identity.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Race, Indigenous, African American, Anthropology, Book Club

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

White supremacist doctrines and eugenics have a lot to answer for. Arica L Coleman's exhaustive account of race and identity in Virginia at times made my head spin - the criteria used in the state to determine racial classification would have made the architects of South Africa's apartheid system proud.

Coleman documents the history of state race-based policies, with special attention to 1924's Racial Integrity Act and its ongoing consequences, and the painful legacy these policies and definitions of race bequeathed to African Americans, Native Americans, and Black Indians alike. In the process, she demonstrates how the history of Native American-African American relations and affiliations has been distorted and erased, and why.

Coleman is an adept navigator of this complex history. I had come across some of this history in passing in other books but this is the first book I've read that provides an in-depth treatment of the subject. It's compelling reading, well-written and packed with information.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historians love to title their books something that is definitely gonna get me weird looks in public

[Java · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the book Dr Coleman was so precise.I found out that Negro was first a term that was used to describe all groups of people like Indians,Irish,German,Asians and Africans.Then through Thomas Jefferson and his hypocrisy which helped to spark the beginnings of the racist pseudo science Eugenics,the term targeted Indian Americans and African Americans.

Mildred Loving (African/Indian)And Richard Loving (Irish) partners who helped win & end discrimination against interracial relationships were a couple that in the 1860s were unable to get married in Virginia so they traveled to Washington DC where they got married.Once lawmakers in Virginia discovered this elopement the two were pulled out there homes by the police and sat in front of a Judge where they were banished from Virginia.

In the 1850 some of the tactics in helping control miscegenation of races in churches,schools and other establishments were the comb test,door test and the paper bag test which compared the skin color of POC to a paper bag in order to gain entry.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting untold history.