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Eugenics and the African American Community (Briefly talked about in Eugenics in the United States )

  Concerns of eugenics especially rose in the African American community after the implementation of the Negro Project of 1939, which was proposed by Margaret Sanger who was the founder of Planned Parenthood. In this plan, Sanger offered birth control to Black families in the United States to give them the chance to have a better life than what the group had been experiencing in the United States . She also noted that the project was proposed to empower women The Project often sought after prominent African American leaders to spread knowledge regarding birth control and the perceived positive effects it would have on the African American community, such as poverty and the lack of education. Because of this, Sanger believed that African American ministers in the South would be especially useful to gain the trust of people within disadvantaged, African American communities as the Church was a pillar within the community. Also, political leaders such as W.E.B. Dubois were quoted in the Project proposal criticizing Black people in the United states for having many children and for being less intelligent than their white counterparts:

“…the mass of ignorant Negroes still breed carelessly and disastrously, so that the increase among Negroes, even more than the increase among Whites, is from that part of the population least intelligent and fit, and least able to rear their children properly.”

Even though The Negro Project received a lot of praise from white leaders and eugenicists of the time, it is important to note that Margaret Sanger wanted to clear concerns that this was not a project to terminate African Americans . To add to the clarification, she received support from prominent African American leaders such as Mary McLeod Bethune and Adam Clayton Powell Jr . These leaders and many more would later serve on the Negro National Advisory Council of Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942. Still, many modern activists criticize Margaret Sanger for practicing eugenics on the African American community. Angela Davis, a leader who is associated with the Black Panthers, made claims of Margaret Sanger targeting the African American community to reduce the population:

“Calling for the recruitment of Black ministers to lead local birth control committees, the Federation’s proposal suggested that Black people should be rendered as vulnerable as possible to their birth control propaganda.”