How The Reproductive Systems of Thousands of African Americans were Removed Through Eugenics In The 20th Century

The history of America is littered with some of the most atrocious humanitarian crimes ever committed against humans, with majority of the victims being African Americans and other ethnic minorities.

One of such practices was the Eugenics programme, which started in America before world war II.  It was basically the sterilization or removal of the reproductive systems of African Americans whom the government deemed as inferior or dangerous. And these were basically the poor, the disabled, the mentally ill, and criminals.

The process involved castrating the men and opening women up, to remove their reproductive systems or surgically block them from being able to get pregnant and have children.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Scientists and the elites considered Eugenics as a method of preserving and improving the dominant groups and genes in the American population. The masses were made to believe it was to better society and rid it of weaker or unwanted genes, but soon it turned into a tool against the African American people.

The Eugenics movement in America was initially advocated for by Sir Francis Galton and his biological determinist ideas in the 1880s. He studied the upper classes of Britain, and had the conclusion that their social status and positions were due to their superior genetic makeup. Many of those who had these same beliefs as Galton, believed that through selective breeding, the human race could direct its own evolution. And they believed strongly that the gene of the Nordic, Germanic, and Anglo-Saxons were more superior.

Now what kind of twisted and debased theory is that, if not one that was designed to continue their persecution, killings and suppression of the Negro wordlwide?

How do you define and decide the genetic superiority of the white man by social class, knowing fully well that hundreds of years of slavery would perpetually place the African American in a lower social class? This has got to be the most hate-induced and narcotics-influenced scientific theory of all ages. It was and still is total bullocks!

The Eugenics movement in America received extensive funding from corporate foundations, including the Rockefeller Foundation, Carnegie Institution, and the Harriman railroad fortune. The Eugenics Record Office (ERO) was founded in Cold Spring Harbor, New York in 1911 by the renowned biologist Charles B. Davenport, using funds from both the Harriman railroad fortune and the Carnegie Institution.

The Eugenics and their twisted supporters and theories believed that poverty was a characteristic of genetic inferiority. And this conveniently pushed the placed population into the “Unfit” section of their “Fit versus Unfit” Eugenic classification.

Learning these things now, one would think that the scientists and elites of that era were on crack.

The height of this practice was the compulsory and forced sterilization. This was first passed into law by the state of Indiana in 1907 and was later followed by 32 states. Between 1907 and 1963, over 64,000 people in America were forcefully sterilized under the Eugenic legislation in the United States.

In 1972, the United States Senate committee reports said that at least 2,000 involuntary sterilizations had been performed on poor black women without their consent or knowledge.

An investigation into this revealed that the surgeries were all performed in the Southern states, and were all performed on black welfare mothers with plenty of children. Testimonies revealed that many of these black women were threatened with an end to their welfare benefits until they agreed to sterilization.

If you are conversant with the American history of black oppression in Southern states, you would agree that the Eugenics theory was a maliciously concocted policy, targeting mostly at African American people.

Till today, it is believed that such practices persist in some states in America.

Very recently, prisons in California are reported to have authorized sterilizations of nearly 150 female inmates between 2006 and 2010. This article from the Center for Investigative reporting reveals how the state of California paid doctors $147,460 to perform tubal ligations that former inmates say were done under coercion and force.

But the state of California is far from being the only state with such disturbing practices. For a disturbing history lesson, you can visit this comprehensive database for your state’s eugenics history.