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editThe American Eugenics Society, also known as the AES, was a government funded society in the United States from the early 1920s until the 1960s. The Society's aim was to guide policy and public opinion of eugenics in the United States (US) to make a "perfect" society. The AES divided the United States population into two different categories, "desirable" and "undesirable."[1] Mainly the white, rich, and intelligent were "desirable" people, while people of color, the poor, and people with mental disabilities were considered "undesirable."[1] The society promoted their eugeincal views at public events by sponsoring "Fitter Family" contests or propaganda using statistical arguments to claim, for example, that US taxpayers "wasted" their money on undesirable people through healthcare or other policy measures.
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editThe AES was established in 1922, after the Second International Conference on Eugenics (International Eugenics Conference). It's founding members were Madison Grant, Harry H. Laughlin, Irving Fisher, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Charles Davenport and Henry Crampton. The mission of the AES was to help promote and educate people on eugenics.
The AES primarily used "fitter family" contests to help promote their mission. These fitter family contests took place in public festivals or fairs. Physical appearance, behavior, intelligence, and health were just a few of the qualities that the AES looks at while determining the fittest family. The AES would give out prizes, trophies, and medals to the winning families. Additionally, the AES would sponsor displays and exhibits that featured statistics on the births of "undesirable" or "desirable"[1] children at the fairs and festivals. An example of such a display from the 1920s and 1930s statistics claimed as followed: Every sixteen seconds a child is born in the United States. Out of those children a capable, desirable child is born every seven and a half minutes, where as a undesirable, feebleminded child is born every forty-eight seconds, and a future criminal is born every fifty seconds.[2] To conclude, the display would argue that every fifteen seconds, a hundred dollars of taxpayers' money went towards supporting the mentally ill and undesirable.[2]
The AES also sought to promote eugenic policies at the US state and federal level, Laughlin served as AES president from 1927-1929, during which he promoted eugenic sterilization in the early twentieth century. By the late 1920s eugenic sterilization laws were being enforced by more than two dozen US states, including Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rodhe Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming (Sterilization law in the United States). Out of all US states, California implemented these laws most often. By 1933, California had enforced eugenically sterilization laws on more people than any of the other US states combined. These people mainly included people of color and foreign immigrants. These laws led to court cases and lawsuits, such as, Buck v. Bell,1927, and Skinner v. Oklahoma,1942.
However, the AES' mission changed over the course of different presidential terms. During the presidency of Henry Farnham Perkins, which took place from 1931 to 1933, the AES worked with the Birth Control League (American Birth Control League). Margaret Sanger, who was a birth control activist, "was a member of the of the AES in 1956 and established the Birth Control League in 1921".[2]
By the 1930s the AES had nearly over one thousand members, but numbers started decreasing by the 1960s. In 1973, the AES changed their name to The Society for the Study of Social Biology.[2] As of 2014, the Society changed their name again to the Society for Biodemography and Social Biology.[3] The Society focuses on and addresses biological, social, and cultural influences on different human populations.[2] The Society also claims to have distanced themselves from the AES's ideology.[2]
References
edithttps://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.319.7207.435
http://embryo.asu.edu/handle/10776/8241
https://eugenicsarchive.ca/discover/tree/5233e53d5c2ec500000000e2
- ^ a b c Kevles, Daniel J. (1999-08-14). "Eugenics and human rights". BMJ. 319 (7207): 435–438. doi:10.1136/bmj.319.7207.435. ISSN 0959-8138. PMC 1127045. PMID 10445929.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: PMC format (link) - ^ a b c d e f "American Eugenics Society (1926-1972) | The Embryo Project Encyclopedia". embryo.asu.edu. Retrieved 2022-12-08.
- ^ "Society for Biodemography and Social Biology", Wikipedia, 2022-09-05, retrieved 2022-12-08