1. The U.S. has a Standard Birth Certificate form that they encourage states to use.
2. FWIW, I think constitutionally Feds probably can’t MAKE states use this, but they preempt objections by:
• determining the data elements that should be collected “through consultation with State health officers and registrars; Federal agencies concerned with vital statistics; national, State, and county medical societies;” and
• letting states customize it to collect whatever additional information they want: “It has been modified in each state to the extent necessitated by the particular needs of the State or by special provisions of the State vital statistics law. However, the certificates of most States conform closely in content and arrangement to the standard certificate.”
Therefore, I cannot PROVE Hawaii used this form in 1961, but there is no indication in any of the numerous vital statistics tabulations regarding Color that Hawaii’s form did not collect this information.
3. You can see a copy of the standard form in use in 1961 here: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsus/vsus_1961_1.pdf on pdf page 228.
• Item 23 is Legitimate (yes or no).
You have to come forward several decades from 1961 to find "white" replaced by "non-hispanic white", with "non-white" further digressed into "black", "cambodian", etc.
Negro and "colored" weren't asked for.
Even Caucasion wasn't used (lest it be mistaken for "colored").