Walter plecker biography

Early Years

Walter Ashby Plecker was born in Augusta County, Virginia, on April 2, 1861, the son of a well-to-do merchant and enslaver. In 1880 Plecker graduated from Hoover Military Academy in Staunton and earned his medical degree from the University of Maryland Medical School in 1885. Plecker worked as a country doctor in western Virginia and the coalfields of Alabama before settling in Elizabeth City County, the area that is now Hampton, in 1892.

In 1902 he became the public health officer for Elizabeth City County. He took a special interest in delivering babies; educating midwives; developing a simple, use-at-home incubator; and working to reduce by half the 5 percent birth–mortality rates among the poor.

Walter Plecker, Public Health Segregationist born - African ...

Plecker distributed silver nitrate to be administered to the eyes of newborns, a procedure that helped reduce incidences of syphilitic blindness. He also kept records to search for ways to improve birthing, a goal made more difficult by the fact that most people were born ( Letter from Walter A. Plecker to Local Registrars, et al ... NEV