Hi Al and Tipsters,
Thanks for the interesting information concerning Carrie Buck!
For those who are interested in more information concerning the role of eugenics in the
United States including the ideas/theories of G.S. Hall, Henry Goddard, Leta
Hollingsworth,
and other eminent psychologists see:
Selden, Steven (1999 - hot off the presses). Inheriting Shame: The Story of Eugenics
and
Racism in America (Advances in Contemporary Educational Thought Series, Vol. 23). New
York:
Teachers College Press.
And from a different perspective:
Dowbiggin, Ian Robert (1997). Keeping America Sane: Psychiatry and Eugenics in the
United
States and Canada 1880-1940. New York: Cornell University Press.
Warm regards,
linda
Al Cone wrote:
> The classic case here is Buck vs. Bell. In the opinion of the Supreme
> Court, "Three generations of idiots is enough." That, by Chief Justice
> Holmes. Problem was that Carrie Buck who sued the Superintendent of the
> Lynchburg (VA) Training School and Hospital for the right to be sterilized
> was NOT retarded!
>
> Background: The law of the Commonwealth based upon eugenic principles
> stated that retarded females could not be discharged until they were past
> child bearing age. The institution was over-crowded then; it still was
> when I spent five years working there first as a grant director and then
> as an administrator in the mid-1970s. Carrie was articulate enough that
> she was chosen to bring suit against Dr. Bell.
>
> All the way to the Supreme Court it was a set-up. Bell did not defend
> himself, in fact he assisted Carrie Buck's case by bringing in eugenics
> experts to testify in in favor of steriliztion.
>
> Though neither of Carrie's illegitimate children survived to to adulthood,
> both did quite well in the Charlotteville, VA schools -- quite a
> competitive academic environment. Carrie and her mother, for that matter,
> could better be described as what they used to call in the South, "poor
> white trash" and not retarded. Carrie was remanded to LTSH because she was
> too sexually liberated by community standards. Two illegitimate children?
> How times change!
>
> After Carrie had had her tubes tied she was discharged. She then married a
> widower with several children. While I worked there several of us managed
> to unearth her file. In it was a letter in her own hand written to Dr.
> Bell. In that letter she thanked him for all he had done to make it
> possible for her to be discharged. She also told about her new family and
> that she was teaching a children's Sunday School class at the church she
> attended. Her hand writing, spelling and grammar were as good as that of
> college freshpersons of the 1970s, and much better than what I see today.
> I said in her own hand writing. This was based on the existence of some
> samples of her written work from the educational unit at LTSH. In other
> words, no one wrote the letter to Dr. Bell for her.
>
> The Virginia law mandating the sterilizing of retarded females was not
> rescinded until (if I recall) the early 1970s
>
> Hope you find this an interesting aside.
>
--
linda m. woolf, ph.d.
associate professor - psychology
webster university
main webpage: http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/
Holocaust and genocide studies pages: http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/holocaust.html
womens' pages: http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/women.html
gerontology pages: http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/gero.html
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
