Diane Weysham Ward v. Director of the Bureau of Vital Statistics, Louisiana State Health Department

DIANE WEYSHAM WARD V. DIRECTOR OF THE BUREAU OF VITAL STATISTICS, LOUISIANA STATE HEALTH DEPARTMENT* f. W. BENNEm The editorial announcing the Perspectives Writing Award states ". . . most of our authors have arrived someplace and in their essays are taking time to look around. This is probably as it should be. However, we think we are missing the perspective of younger writers" [I]. The expression "taking time to look around" set up a sympathetic vibration with me. I'm a younger writer, hoping someday to arrive someplace. I'm currently involved in my first consulting case. My preparations for appearing in court to present "expert testimony" have gone far beyond the legal issue, per se, and I've found myself "taking time to look around." Writing this essay is an attempt to organize some of the "looking." First a bit of autobiographical data. I grew up in New York, went to college in New Jersey, and to graduate school in Illinois. I was fairly active in the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960s. My geographical and emotional bias toward the north made me have some second thoughts when my bestjob offer after graduation came from the deep south. Nonetheless, I am now a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, where I teach genetics at Tulane University. Since moving to New Orleans I've acquired two small children and one very large mortgage. I've been trying to develop an expertise in human genetics, in hopes of supplementing my income by doing some genetic counseling. Diane Weysham Ward v. Director ofthe Bureau of Vital Statistics, Louisiana State Health Department [2] is my first consulting case. I find it ironic that what began as a simple desire to earn some extra income has turned into a major preoccupation. It has taught me something of local history, caused me to burrow into the law library, forced me to read widely in anthropology and to reexamine my position on civil rights and the divi- *This essay received honorable mention in the first Perspectives Writing Award for authors under 35. tDepartment of Biology, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana 701 18. 582 I J. W. Bennett · Ward v. Louisiana State Health Department sion between north and south. I've learned something about myself as a person, in reference to myself as a professional scientist. The case involves racial designation on a birth certificate. At first it seemed straightforward and simple. The Case Lisa Marie Anthony was born on December 3, 1969, in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. Her parents were Diane Weysham Anthony and Joseph Poleat Anthony. When they filled out the birth certificate they indicated that their daughter was "white." In 1972 Lisa Marie's parents were divorced. Later her mother remarried and became Diane Weysham Ward. The new husband wanted to adopt Lisa Marie. When Diane Weysham Ward attempted to obtain a certified copy of Lisa Marie's birth certificate she was refused it by the state registrar of vital statistics. The refusal was based on legislation passed in 1970, after Lisa Marie's birth. As written in LSA-R.S. 42:267 (Act 46 of 1970), the law states: "In signifying race, a person having one thirty-second or less of Negro blood shall not be deemed, described or designated by any public official in the State of Louisiana, as 'colored,' 'mulatto,' 'black,' 'negro' [sic], 'griffe,' an 'Afro American,' 'quadroon,' a 'mestizo,' a 'colored person,' or a 'person of color'" [3]. On January 30, 1971, the Louisiana State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, issued a 10-point list of regulations for the enforcement of Act 46 of 1970. I quote the two most pertinent points below. 2.On the face of each and every certificate of any registrant having a traceable amount of Negro blood, according to available evidence, the State Registrar shall stamp, with a rubber stamp, in red ink, beneath or adjacent to the confidential section of said certificate in bold letters the words: "Do Not Issue Any Copy Until Cleared Under Act 46 of 1970 by State Registrar." 3.When a copy of said certificate is applied for it shall be checked against the evidence in the possession of the State...