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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 • • • • 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