Transcript Marriage and Sterilization Policies - Hidden

Marriage and
Sterilization Policies
1924-1979
By: Zahra Kafel
Darius Reid
Kayla Goldberg
Cami Leisk
Naseem Kefayati
Eugenicists’ Goals
• To legally forbid white people to
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marry people in any other race.
To create laws to fix social problems.
To not allow people with bad traits to
reproduce.
To eliminate bad traits in society.
“To cleanse the nation of citizens of
the wrong type”
Scientific Support
• Mendel’s pea plants experiments about
inheritance.
• Darwin’s studies on breeding and
survival of the fittest.
Gaining Support
 41 Eugenics textbooks printed, which was
90% of all the textbooks printed between
1914 and 1948.
 It was taught in Biology classes.
 Laws were passed to restrict who you could
marry according to race.
 People wanted to fix the social problems and
to justify their preexisting prejudices.
 The ideas spread and were accepted as just
scientific facts.
Pedigree Chart
Policies That Helped Eugenics
 Buck vs. Bell court ruling - The United
States Supreme Court upheld the right
to sterilize the mentally retarded
 They said it was "for the protection and
health of the state.”
 This opened the door for Eugenics to
implement their plans of improving the
human race through getting rid of bad
genes in the gene pool.
The Human Cost
 Richard Loving (white) and his wife
Mildred Jeter (black/Indian) were ripped
out of their bed and were forced to leave
Virginia for 25 years.
 Hudlow, a white male, ran away from
home because of the beatings he was
receiving from his father. The
government called this a crime and said
he was uncontrollable and then
sterilized him.
Challenges to Eugenics
 The case of Loving/Jeter - when they
returned to Washington, they appealed
to a judge and won. This sparked a
movement where laws were changed.
 People begin demanding apologies for
sterilization, eugenicists show little
regret
 Against the 14th and 8th amendments,
eugenics as unconstitutional
The Lasting Effect
 Prolonged prejudices
 There are people still alive today who
have been sterilized
Sources
 Race and Membership in American
History: The Eugenics Movement