Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement

Evolution, "Progress," and the Origins of Eugenics

• Frederick Douglass's Perspective: Douglass observed that "Scientific writers, not less than others, write to please, as well as to instruct, and even unconsciously to themselves, (sometimes,) sacrifice what is true to what is popular."

• The Paradigm Shift of Darwinism: Prior to the Civil War, "race science" dominated American views of difference. The publication of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in England (1859) introduced the idea that living things change from generation to generation and that new life forms develop from or replace old ones.

• Societal Application: Post-Civil War scholars applied Darwin's natural-world theories to human societies to "explain" observed differences.

• Historian Page Smith's Analysis (1900): Smith argued that Darwin’s theory colored how social classes and races viewed one another.

  • Racial Hierarchy: American Indians, Black people, and East Asians were viewed as representing "lower stages of evolutionary development."

  • Economic Justification: Wealthy Americans used the theory to confirm "competitive individualism" and justify capitalism.

  • Socialism: Others viewed it as an anticipation of a higher form of political organization.

  • Internal Division: The theory divided clerics, professors, scientists, and even families.

• The Birth of Eugenics: Some thinkers believed evolution could "improve the race" melalui eugenics, a branch of inquiry developed by Francis Galton (Darwin's cousin). Galton aimed to "raise the present miserably low standard of the human race" by "breeding the best with the best."

From Darwinism to Social Darwinism

• Charles Darwin's Journey: Darwin traveled to South America on a survey ship between $1831$ and $1836$. His observations led to the realization that species develop in different directions when isolated.

• The Influence of Thomas Malthus: Darwin was influenced by Malthus’s An Essay on the Principle of Population as It Affects the Future Improvement of Society, which argued that human populations multiply faster than food supplies.

  • Natural Selection: Darwin reasoned that animals must compete to stay alive, and nature "selects" the forms most likely to survive.

  • Survival Mechanics: Organisms suited to their environment live to mate. Gradually, new traits and species evolve. He published these findings in On the Origin of Species ($1859$).

• Herbert Spencer and Social Darwinism: Spencer, a British thinker, popularized "social Darwinism" using phrases like "the struggle for existence" and "the survival of the fittest."

  • Germany (Ernst Haeckel): Combined the doctrine with romanticism about the German people. In The Riddle of the Universe, he ranked "Aryans" at the top and Jews/Africans at the bottom.

  • US and England: Social Darwinists stressed that competition rewards "the strong" and opposed aid to the poor or labor regulations, wanting nature to "take its course."

• William Graham Sumner's Duty: A Yale professor and Spencer follower, Sumner argued that the primary duty of every person is to "take care of his or her own self." He believed society did not need supervision and that helping "good-for-nothings" was an injury that stopped the "natural process of elimination by which society continually purifies itself."

Racial Expansion and Institutionalized Segregation

• Josiah Strong's Anglo-Saxonism: Strong, an influential writer, claimed in $1885$ that the progress of the US was the result of natural selection. He predicted a "final competition of races" where the Anglo-Saxon race would move into Mexico, Central/South America, Africa, and beyond.

• Plessy v. Ferguson ($1896$): The US Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" facilities did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. Associate Justice Henry B. Brown stated: "If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them on the same plane."

• Jim Crow Laws: This decision birthed the system of state/local legislation that segregated churches, theaters, parks, and cemeteries. Historian Lerone Bennett, Jr. described this as building a wall "brick by brick, bill by bill, fear by fear."

• Case Study: Pauli Murray:

  • Attended a segregated school in Durham, North Carolina, in the $1920s$.

  • The School Facility: A dilapidated wooden structure with bare floors, leaky plumbing, and broken fountains. Murray noted the contrast: "we got the greasy, torn, dog-eared books" while white children got new ones.

  • Identity Impact: The run-down school messaged to Murray that she was "proscribed and unwanted."

  • Achievements: Despite these obstacles, Murray earned degrees from Hunter College, Howard University, and Yale (Ph.D.). She became an attorney, priest, and activist, challenging Jim Crow long before the $1960s$ movement.

Francis Galton and the Science of "Race Improvement"

• The Context of Industrialization: Urbanization led to people living among strangers, often blaming "outsiders" (immigrants, African Americans) for societal ills.

• Eugenics Definition: Coined in $1883$ from the Greek for "good in birth" or "noble in heredity."

  • Galton's Vision: He defined it as the "science of improving stock" and "race betterment."

  • Civil Worth: He claimed traits like "character, disposition, energy, intellect, or physical power" were a "definite endowment."

• Galton's Three Stages for Success:

  1. Make it familiar as an academic question.

  2. Recognize its practical development as being in near prospect.

  3. Introduce it into the national conscience "like a new religion."

• Scientific Contradictions Ignored by Galton:

  • Intelligence Testing: Galton devised a test where the poor performed as well as the "better elements." He blamed the test, not his theory.

  • Regression Toward the Mean: Research on pea plants showed that most offspring were slightly worse than superior parents. Galton acknowledged this statistical middle but continued to claim fit parents produce superior offspring.

Gregor Mendel’s Laws of Heredity

• Mendel's Background: A peasant-born monk who experimented in a monastery garden in Brünn starting in $1857$.

• Experimental Methodology: He used green pea flowers to track traits like seed color and texture across generations, rejecting the "mingling bloodlines" theory.

• Key Principles ($1865$):

  • Principle of Dominance: Genes exist in alternate forms (alleles). If alleles differ (heterozygous), one is dominant and one is recessive. If they are the same, they are homozygous.

  • Principle of Segregation: Matching alleles segregate when gametes (sperm/egg) form. Each offspring receives one allele from each parent.

  • Principle of Independent Assortment: Traits are passed on independently of each other in random combinations (e.g., stature does not dictate seed smoothness).

• Rediscovery ($1900$): Mendel's work was ignored for decades because it focused on traits staying the same (inheritance) rather than changing (adaptation). Three scientists independently rediscovered it in $1900$.

Charles Davenport and the Eugenics Record Office (ERO)

• Davenport’s Influence: He earned a Ph.D. from Harvard and established the Station for Experimental Evolution ($1904$) and the Eugenics Record Office ($1910$) at Cold Spring Harbor.

• Heredity in Relation to Eugenics ($1911$): Davenport's textbook argued that humans are animals and the laws of improvement for "corn and race horses" apply to them too.

• Xenophobia and Racism:

  • Targeted "hordes of Jews" from Russia and Southeast Europe as having "ideals of gain at the cost of any interest."

  • Predicted that immigration would make the US population "darker in pigmentation, smaller in stature… more given to crimes of larceny, kidnapping, assault, murder."

  • Proposed "selective elimination" at ports of entry to block those with "bad germ plasm" (genes) like epilepsy or alcoholism.

Pedigree Charts and the Methodology of Eugenics

• Techniques: The ERO used pedigree charts (circles for females, squares for males, Roman numerals for generations) to track traits.

• Field Workers: Often college students with limited training. They labeled people based on "first glances" or neighbor interviews as "shiftless," "feeble-minded," or "criminalistic."

• Trait Symbols: Common labels included "A" for alcoholism, "C" for criminality, and "Sx" for sexual immorality.

• Case Example (Figure 50, III, 4): An $11$-year-old boy labeled "C" (criminal) because he stole and set fires. Despite having a "fine, thoughtful" father, Davenport claimed a "taint" on both sides of the family lineage (uncles who were thieves or alcoholic grandfathers) made his criminality hereditary.

Scientific Challenges to Eugenics

• Punnett and Bateson: Discovered that genes can modify one another ($1905$-$1908$), meaning physical traits are not always the result of a single gene.

• Thomas Hunt Morgan: Conducted fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) experiments ($4$ chromosome pairs vs. human $23$). He found:

  • Genes on the same chromosome are linked.

  • Most traits are the result of several genes working together.

  • The environment can alter the effects of genes.

• Charles W. Stiles and Hookworm:

  • $40$ percent of Southerners were affected by hookworm in the late $1800s$.

  • Symptoms included anemia, retarded physical/mental development, and "dirt eating."

  • Stiles treated $700,000$ people ($1909$-$1914$) with Rockefeller funding, proving "dullness" was environmental (lack of shoes/sanitation), not hereditary.

Henry H. Goddard and The Kallikak Family ($1912$)

• The Study: A popular book that traced two branches of one family. The name combining Greek kalos (beautiful) and kakos (bad).

• The Subject: Deborah Kallikak, an inmate at the Vineland Training School. Goddard claimed her "bad" branch (descended from a "feeble-minded girl") produced paupers and criminals, while the "good" branch (respectable wife) produced normal citizens.

• Abraham Meyerson’s Critique: Meyerson, a neurology professor, mocked the "superior female intuition" of field workers (like Elizabeth Kite) who claimed to diagnose the mental state of a girl living five generations prior based on "first glances."

• Deborah's Reality: Her school reports described her as a skilled woodcarver, excellent in kindergarten assistance, and able to run a sewing machine. She was kept institutionalized primarily due to her "nature" (having boyfriends) and labeling as a "high-grade moron."

Franz Boas and the Anthropological Shift

• Arctic Expedition ($1883$): Boas lived with the Eskimo and realized their "feelings, virtues, and shortcomings are based in human nature, like ours."

• Core Thesis ($1894$): Historical events and circumstances are more potent in leading races to civilization than inherited ability. He insisted that mental differences between races "have not been proved yet."

• Advocacy for African History:

  • Invited by W.E.B. DuBois to speak at Atlanta University ($1905$).

  • Boas spoke of Black kingdoms south of the Sahara, astonishing DuBois with the "silence and neglect of science."

• The African Institute Proposal: Boas asked Andrew Carnegie for funding to study the anatomy, achievements, and statistics of the Negro race to combat prejudice. Carnegie refused Boas but continued to fund Davenport’s eugenics research.

• Zora Neale Hurston: A student of Boas and the first African American woman to graduate from Barnard College. She applied Boas's methods to trace African American folklore in the South.