Religion Eugenics Vocab

W.E.B. DuBois

A founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAAC.) He believed that the “talented tenth” of colored people should reproduce descendants to represent the “best” of them.

Charles Davenport

An American biologist who started a eugenics institute in Cold Spring Harbor after speaking to Francis Galton in Britain. One of the founders of the eugenics movement.

 Margaret Sanger

One of the first proponents of birth control. She tied her cause to eugenics by arguing for birth control’s potential to shape the next generation.

Madison Grant

A conservationist who, out of concern for the “white race” dying out, persuaded government officials of the need for immigration restriction.

 Grigor Mendel

An Austrian priest who recorded certain patterns of traits in the pea plants he grew.

 Lillian Russell

An actress who believed in eugenics, citing the need for “an America for Americans.”

 Harry Laughlin

A eugenics “evangelist” whose studies on immigrant intelligence shaped laws in both the United States and Germany

John Kellogg

A health advocate who developed a cereal that still bears his name today. He organized a eugenics conference at the Panama-Pacific Expo.

Hermann Muller

A zoologist based in Texas who discovered he could artificially mutate flies by exposing them to radiation.

Thomas Morgan

A zoologist based in New York who discovered the unpredictability of heredity in animals by studying flies.

Carrie Buck

A southern girl who was institutionalized and sterilized for her feeblemindedness. Her case was used to push sterilization laws to further application

Ann Cooper Hewitt

A California heiress who was sterilized for her feeblemindedness. Her case drew attention to the questionable justification of sterilization.

Henry Goddard

A psychologist who warned of the dangers of “feeblemindedness.” He later recanted his views on so-called “morons.”