Confronting the Forgotten
History of the American
Eugenics Movement
Definition of Eugenics
Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911)
“Eugenics is the study of the agencies under social
ontrol that may improve or impair the racial qualities
of future generations either
physically or mentally.”
(1883)
Corn Types Exhibit (1921)
Race Betterment Poster
1915
ERO Summer Institute Class (1913)
Pedigree Chart of Legendary N. J. Family
Textbook Illustration
(1920’s)
Eugenics and the Academy
• By 1928 more than 3/4 of all colleges had
courses on eugenics.
• Between 1914 and 1950 more than 90% of
all biology textbooks had a section on
eugenics.
• Prominent educational researchers
subscribed to eugenic notions of
intelligence. (Lewis Terman, E.Thorndike,
and E. Cubberly)
Winning Hearts and Minds
• Eugenics moves from
the Academy to Main
Street
• Identifying the
Superior Types
• Identifying the Inferior
Types
San Francisco Race Betterment Pavillion
(1915)
Positive Eugenics
• Identify the Superior
• Evaluate the Superior
• Increase Reproduction of the Superior
Eugenic Health Exhibit
(Topeka Kansas, 1927)
Fitter Family Exhibit
(Topeka, Kansas, 1927)
Fitter Family Winners with Eugenic Evaluators: Kansas State Fair
First Prize Winners
Large Family
Topeka, 1927
First Prize Winner
Best Baby Contest
(Battle Creek, Mi.)
1914
Negative Eugenics
Identifying the Inferior
Evaluating the Inferior
Removing the Inferior
Poster from
Race Betterment
Foundation
(Battle Creek, MI.)
1920
Cover of
Social Work
Pamphlet
(1915)
Flashing Light Exhibit
(Philadelphia, 1929)
Administration of IQ Test to Immigrant
(Ellis Island, circa, 1913)
Experiencing One of the first IQ
Tests: Beta Test 5
•Fix what is wrong with each of the 20 pictures.
•You have only three minutes to complete the test.
•There is only one right answer.
•Work on your own.
•Begin at the instructor’s command.
Beta IQ Test 5
(1917)
Eugenic Ideas Become Policy
• State Sterilization Laws
• Tougher Anti-Miscegenation Laws
• Immigration Restriction Act of 1924
• Educational Tracking
State Sterilization Laws
• The United States becomes the first country to
sterilize people in the name of “racial purity.
• Indiana passes the first law in 1907. By 1935, 30
states pass sterilzation laws.
• By 1929, approximately 8,500 sterilizations
occurred. By 1940: 35, 000… by 1968: 65,000
• Some reasons for sterilization included epiliepsy,
blindness, feeblemindedness, sexual deviancy,
deafness, and alcoholism.
Buck v Bell Supreme Court Decision
(1927)
First Grade Report Card of Carrie Buck’s Daughter:
Vivian Charlottesville, Va. (1930-31)
Eugenics and
Anti-Miscegenation
• By 1900, 38 states already had bans on
marriages between “whites” and African
Americans, Asians, and Native Americans.
• In the 1920’s eugenics is used to make
some of these laws even more stringent.
• Virginia’s 1924, Act to Preserve Racial
Integrity, is eugenic inspired and not
overturned until the 1967 Loving v Va.
Supreme Court Decision.
Virginia’s Act to Preserve Racial Integrity
(1924)
Exhibit on Dangers of
“Race Mixing” at the
2’nd International
Eugenics Conference
American Museum of
Natural History
(1921)
Exhibit Poster from Third International Eugenics Conference
American Museum of Natural History (1932)
Eugenics and Immigration
Restriction
• The Johnson-Lodge Immigration Act of
1924 is an eugenic law.
• Racial quotas are established: based upon a
ceiling of 2% of a defined ethnic group’s
population according to the 1890 census.
• The law is not substantially revised until
1965.
Transcript of Harry Laughlin’s Testimony
as “Expert Eugenics Adviser” to Committee
On Immigration (1920)
IQ Test Results of Immigrants: Used at
Congressional Hearings
(On display at the American Museum of Natural History)
President Calvin Coolidge Signs the
Immigration Restriction Act into law
in 1924
He writes:
There are racial considerations too grave to be
brushed aside for any sentimental reasons. Biological laws
tell us that certain divergent people
will not mix or blend. The Nordics propagate themselves
successfully. With other races, the outcome suggests that
observance of ethnic law is as great a necessity to a nation as
immigration law.
Eugenics and Educational Policy
• By 1921, more than 2 million American children
took IQ tests to determine educational tracking.
• Some of the most influential creators of
standardized tests in the 1910’s and 20’s saw them
as eugenic tools of measurement: Lewis Terman
(Stanford), Carl Brigham (Princeton), and Edward
Thorndike (Columbia)
Essential Questions to Ask of the
Eugenics Movement
• What happens to a society when science and
education define human beings as superior
or inferior?
• How do these ideas affect human behavior
and public policy?
• Where are these legacies today?