The 1930 rule: Negro "unless the Indian blood predominates" (United States, 1930)

SUMMARY7. The 1930 rule: Negro "unless the Indian blood predominates" (United States, 1930) [Connections: Who decided who's Indian, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDParagraph 151: "A person of mixed white and Negro blood should be returned as a Negro, no matter how small the percentage of Negro blood. Both black and mulatto persons are to be returned as Negroes, without distinction. A person of mixed Indian and Negro blood should be returned a Negro, unless the Indian blood predominates and the status as an Indian is generally accepted in the community." Compare paragraph 152: "A person of mixed white and Indian blood should be returned as Indian, except where the percentage of Indian blood is very small, or where he is regarded as a white person by those in the community where he lives." And par. 155: "Mixtures of colored races should be reported according to the race of the father, except Negro-Indian (see par. 151)." HOSTILE

WITNESSthe Census Bureau, writing in the decade of state racial-integrity laws

PATTERNTwo different tests. Indian-white leans Indian (only "very small" Indian blood or white community status moves you out). Indian-Black leans Negro, and the person must clear two bars: Indian blood "predominates" AND the community accepts the Indian status. In a Jim Crow county, "the community" was the white registrar's world

LENS (WW9)This is the paper switch in one sentence: Aboriginal with any Black kin defaulted to "Negro" unless the neighbors signed off

OPENThe brief's quoted wording ("generally accepted as an Indian in the community") is a paraphrase; use the exact text above. Check how the 1930 Indian columns 19–20 ("full blood"/"mixed blood," tribe) were filled for Southeastern counties

SOURCEIPUMS, 1930 instructions. Primary: Fifteenth Census of the United States, Instructions to Enumerators, Population and Agriculture (1930), pars. 150–155.