Topic: Virginia 1924

1 chapters across the catalog

09: One Drop
14:05 - 18:53

09: One Drop

One Drop Rule, Halle Berry and Racial Identity

The "One Drop Rule" is introduced as a historical and legal standard where any amount of African ancestry classified a person as black. Actress Halle Berry's comments on her biracial daughter's identity serve as a modern example of this theory's persistence. The segment details the 1924 Virginia law that encoded this rule to maintain a strict binary between white and black populations.