THE ABCs of EUGENICS

A

THE AMERICAN BREEDERS ASSOCIATION

American Breeders Association was the first national membership-based organization promoting genetic and eugenic research in the United States. Its eugenics wing began in 1906, and promoted selective breeding, recording and controlling heredity in human beings, and minimizing the "threat" of inferior humans, to the general public. 

B

BREEDING OUT

Breeding Out A eugenic belief that negative behaviors and characteristics could be weeded out of germ plasm (DNA) through selective breeding of the fit and sterilization of the unfit.

C

CULTURAL LAG

 A term coined in the 1920s by Chicago sociologist William Ogburn for a process in which humans biologically fail to keep pace with their inventions.  Cultural lag (also called racial disorganization) was used to classify immigrant and migrating Americans as subnormal or feebleminded.

D

DEFECTIVE, DELINQUENT, DEPENDENT

Eugenic classifications used by reformers and social workers to identify wards of the county or state in care.  

E

EVOLUTION

the change in the characteristics of a species over several generations that relies on the process of natural selection or survival of the fittest.  Eugenicists sought to help evolution along, fearing the loss of fit specimens through natural selection. 

F

FEEBLEMINDED

A person with mental or intellectual deficits deemed unable to make moral, sound judgments.

G

GERM PLASM

a term used to define the genetic material passed from one generation to successive generations that included behaviors and character traits.

H

HYBRIDITY

a term used to describe mixed-raced individuals, or someone born of two separate races or cultures.

I

IMBECILE

a mental deficiency classification assigned to a person with a mental aptitude of 4 to 10-year-old with gradations of low-grade imbecile (4-5-year-olds), medium grade imbecile (6-8 year-olds), and high-grade imbeciles (8-10-year-olds). 

J

THE JUKES

a study conducted by Richard Dugdale of a New York "hill family" to chart its inherited genetic pathology (crime, poverty, immorality, and ignorance).  The study was used to substantiate eugenic sterilization laws. 

K

JOHN KELLOGG

was a vocal eugenicist, and he was particularly concerned with race degeneracy. He believed that race was threatened both by racial mixing and mental defectives.  Kellogg revolutionized the American diet by inventing flaked breakfast cereals Corn Flakes.

L

HARRY LAUGHLIN

an American educator and eugenicist. He served as the Superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office and was pivotal in promoting compulsory sterilization laws.

M

MORON

a mental deficiency classification assigned to a person with a mental aptitude of a child 10-12-years-old.

N

NATURAL SELECTION 

organisms better adapted to the environment survive and pass their genes on to future generations. The theory inspired eugenicists to assert that humans can be improved by selective breeding.

O

ONE-DROP RULE / RACE PURITY ACT 1924

under the Racial Integrity Act determined that anyone who had even one Black ancestor (thus “one drop” of Black blood) could not be considered white and “racially pure.” 

P

PEDIGREE CHARTS

a diagram that shows the occurrence and appearance of particular genes from ancestors to successive generations.

Q

QUININE SUPPOSITORIES 

touted by eugenicists as a cheap, safe family planning (birth control) method that trapped and killed sperm and impeded pregnancy. 

R

RACE SUICIDE

(Race Degeneration) a eugenic belief that socially and genetically fit people (White, middle-class, non-immigrant, and respectable) were failing to reproduce themselves, setting the stage for poor, uneducated, Black and immigrant groups – to overpopulate and destroy White civilization.  

S

STERILIZATION

to render persons considered either mentally or socially inept incapable of reproducing offspring.  An estimated 60,000 Americans were believed forcibly sterilized in public institutions from 1907 to 1976.

T

TOMORROW'S CHILDREN

a 1934 film written by African American (Harlem Renaissance) writer Wallace Thurman about a young girl facing forced sterilization because of her poor and unfit family.  The mainstream, Hollywood film was one of a handful of 30s films that specifically addressed eugenics and sterilizations.

U

UP FROM THE APE 

"Up from the Ape" a widely-used textbook by physical anthropologist Earnest Hooton. It posited the natural athleticism & criminality of Blacks based on their appearance. Up from the Ape first published in 1931 and was reprinted into the 1960s.

V

VITALITY

the needed component to germ plasm transmitted through successive generations that makes them able to adapt and withstand hardships.  

W

WORLD FAIRS 

World Fairs became unique spaces to promote popular eugenics by introducing concepts through exhibitions and photos understood by different nationalities.  One exhibit titled “Pedigree-Study in Man” was featured at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933–34 and included a themed station “Century of Progress” to document how favorable traits in the human population could best be perpetuated.

X

X-RAYS

X-Rays were used a sterilization method after eugenicists found that if testes or ovaries are exposed to certain levels of X-rays, they are rendered impotent.

Y

ROBERT YERKES

a eugenicist who advocated low-intelligence groups not be permitted to degrade the U.S. gene pool. He developed a mental acuity test to legally promote enforced isolation and sterilization of people with low test scores; and to preserve the quality of the U.S. population, by excluding Southern and Eastern Europeans from coming to the U.S.

Z

(HUMAN) ZOOS 

(Human) Zoos that placed people of various cultures on "display" to note their racial savagery. In 1904, Sam Verner trafficked 12-y.o. Ota Benga from Congo to the U.S. where he was caged at the St. Louis World’s Fair and later the Bronx Zoo Monkey House.