US History

Science and Technology

The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)

Social Movements

This collection uses primary sources to explore the eugenics movement and its impact in the United States.

Teaching Guide: Exploring the Eugenics Movement in the United States

An excerpt from a pamphlet supporting the sterilization of individuals in asylums, 1903.

An excerpt from a journal article about the progress of eugenics in the United States, 1911.

An excerpt from a pamphlet about eugenics and race, 1912.

An excerpt from a book about methods of practical eugenics, 1917.

An excerpt from an article by Dr. Kelly Miller about eugenics and African Americans, 1917.

A 1919 circular letter from Margaret Sanger to W. E. B. Du Bois asking for financial support for the Birth Control movement.

A poster for a “Better Baby Contest” in Indiana, 1930.

An excerpt from a book about eugenics laws in the United States, 1930.

A letter from Margaret Sanger on behalf of the Birth Control Federation of America, 1941.

A 1945 informational pamphlet about sterilization in North Carolina.

A 1947 pamphlet including information about sterilization laws and history in specific US states.

An audio recording of a 1971 eugenics speech interrupted by protestors at Sacramento State College.

An excerpt from the final report to the governor of North Carolina on compensating sterilization victims in 2012.

A 2014 poster for an event about the ethics of modern eugenics.

Resources

1. [Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement](http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/), Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. 
2. [*Buck v. Bell* (1927)](https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Buck_v_Bell_1927), Encyclopedia Virginia. 
3. [Eugenics: Compulsory Sterilization in 50 American States](http://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/), University of Vermont.
4. [Human Testing, the Eugenics Movement, and IRBs](https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/human-testing-the-eugenics-movement-and-irbs-724), Nature Education. 
5. [Unwanted Sterilization and Eugenics Programs in the United States](http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/unwanted-sterilization-and-eugenics-programs-in-the-united-states/), PBS. 

Overview

In 1883, Sir Francis Galton, a nineteenth-century English social scientist, statistician, and psychologist, coined the term “eugenics” from the Greek word *eugenes*, meaning well-born. The practice of eugenics aims to improve the genetic quality of a human population through selective breeding—encouraging reproduction for the “strongest” humans while discouraging reproduction for the “weakest” humans. Cultural, social, and scientific ideas of the late nineteenth-century informed how eugenicists identified desirable and undesirable genetic traits. According to these eugenicists, the “strongest” humans were typically white (from northern and western Europe), healthy, and wealthy. The “weakest” humans were typically non-white (or white from southern and eastern Europe), poor, physically or mentally disabled, or considered criminally or sexually “deviant.”

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century United States, eugenics programs received widespread public support. They took two approaches: positive and negative eugenics. Positive eugenics encouraged healthy people perceived to have above-average intelligence to reproduce. Negative eugenics, the predominant form in the US, discouraged reproduction and advocated sterilization for those perceived to have undesirable traits. Sterilization is a permanent method of birth control that uses surgical procedures to eliminate an individual’s ability to reproduce. In negative eugenics programs, sterilization was often performed involuntarily on patients, sometimes without the patient’s knowledge of the consequences.

Eugenics programs were supported by legislation, court rulings, and powerful promoters. An early advocate of eugenics, Harry H. Laughlin, Director of the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor, New York, supported compulsory state sterilization laws and significantly shaped negative eugenics legislative policy in the United States. Margaret Sanger, a strong advocate for women’s reproductive rights, was also a supporter of the eugenics movement. Known as the founder of the Birth Control League that later became Planned Parenthood, Sanger specifically supported the sterilization of those considered mentally unfit. Eugenics programs in states like California and North Carolina sterilized thousands of people and provided models for Nazi Germany’s eugenics work.

This primary source set explores the eugenics movement to help readers analyze how racism, sexism, classism, and ableism (discrimination against people with disabilities) influenced eugenics laws and programs in the United States.

English

Eugenics Movement in the United States

eugenics-movement_14_e783fc1a1bbd222b3d8c9ec22a14d0f6.jpg

Courtesy of University of Utah - James E. Faust Law Library via Mountain West Digital Library.

S.J. Quinney College of Law Comm, “The Other Side of Reproductive Rights: The Untold Story and Ethics of Modern Eugenics,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/317c228eb36a09b390f994ed04978f2c.

This poster announces a reading and panel discussion of “The Other Side of Reproductive Rights: The Untold Story and Ethics of Modern Eugenics” at the University of Utah College of Law on February 28, 2014. The poster and the talk are examples of contemporary manifestations of the eugenics debate. Eugenics is not just a nineteenth and twentieth-century phenomenon; there are still real consequences of the practice in the twenty-first century.

A 2014 poster for an event about the ethics of modern eugenics.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 14 of 14 in the Primary Source Set Eugenics Movement in the United States