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Eugenic States

Whiteness and Interracial Relationships

Officials in Iowa, like in other states, participated in race betterment programs that upheld white supremacist ideals. At the time, the majority of the state’s population were what we would consider to be “white” today. However, in the past, eugenicists did not see these individuals as fulfilling their ideal, who was someone of western European-descent, middle-class, able-bodied, and from a Protestant background. Eugenicists argued that people from eastern and southern Europe were a lesser-degree white person and inferior compared to “more pure” individuals. Eugenicists also claimed that other factors such as physical and mental disabilities, poverty, non-heterosexual sexualities, and criminality could be inherited and therefore, people with these identities could threaten the purity of the race if they had children. To convey this information, eugenicists used a wide range of methods, including seemingly innocuous Better Baby Contests at local fairs.

Iowa hosted their first Baby Better Contest in 1911 at the Iowa State Fair. Iowa newspapers credited Dr. Margaret V. Clark with developing and promoting the contest. At a Des Moines women’s club, Clark reportedly declared that “children should be scientifically ‘scored’ as well as horses, cattle, sheep, dogs and various sorts of grain.” Iowa public health reformers found this idea of rating infants as you would livestock appealing because it could, theoretically, define “perfect” and “imperfect” children based on their upbringing, environment, and family background. Contests could, in part, be used to offer educational support for mothers on childrearing. It could also be used to showcase the perceived beauty of white children, sharing the idea that it was possible to create a better race through better breeding among people. Judges scored babies based on their physical fitness, appearance, and perceived mental abilities. Black children were excluded from participation. These assessments reinforced the image within society that only specific types of white babies could be perfect. Better Baby Contests supported eugenic ideas while masking as a benevolent program, demonstrating that not all forms of racial betterment programs were “violent” like eugenic sterilization.

In addition to excluding Black families from participating, these contests depicted interracial marriage as problematic, and offspring from this union were inferior. Records from the Iowa Board of Eugenics showed that public health institutions understood interracial sex and relationships as signs of an individual’s unfit mental health and poor morals. These intimate details about a patient’s sexual life or their mixed-race families served as evidence to justify an individual’s sterilization. In 1951, the Iowa Board of Eugenics referred a fourteen-year-old white girl described as a “tall, friendly girl, having light brown hair” for a sterilization procedure. The girl was an inmate at a training school for girls because of “delinquent and incorrigible behavior,” although the patient file never described any troubling behavior from her. Instead, the Board of Eugenics cited her mother’s promiscuity and relationships with non-white men as part of the reason why the patient needed to be sterilized and sent to another institution that would treat her as if she were “mentally deficient.” The patient’s file talked about how her mother exhibited “amoral sexual behavior and a disregard for the training and care of her children.” Part of this description came from the note that the mother was “immoral” because she “had a negro child in 1947” out of wedlock. Similarly, the Eugenics Board explained that the girl, like her mother, also had sexual experience with “white and colored” boys. (Iowa Board of Eugenics Records, State Archives, R.G. 37, Box 30, Case 1359) Patient records like these showed that the Eugenics Board determined that romantic and sexual relationships across racial lines were evidence of an individual’s poor morals and cognitive deficiencies. The Eugenics Board therefore aimed to preserve the “purity” of the white race by preventing mixed-race relationships and the birth of mixed-race children.

Cases presented before the Eugenics Board illustrated that people of color in Iowa experienced racial discrimination that influenced their referral for sterilization. Some patient records referred to people of color in racist language. Other patient files showed that many kinds of state employees could refer individuals for sterilization using race as a form of justification. In one case, the Eugenics Board discussed a fourteen-year-old Black girl. Her patient file noted that she performed poorly in school and was involved in “several quarrels” with some of the girls in her class. School officials expelled her for this behavior and the school’s psychologist determined that she should be sterilized and sent to a girls’ training school because she said,

“I don’t feel the [Name Redacted] will benefit a great deal by any more formal public education, but on the other hand, I do not believe that she should be allowed to roam the streets. If she is, it is obvious what will happen to her. She lacks judgement and the ability to make the finer moral distinctions. The result will be that she will become delinquent in one way or another. Her home background is not adequate and apparently does not provide the proper training or supervision. … It is my recommendation that this matter be carried through as soon as it is physically possible, because the longer this girl remains in the general public the greater her chances are for delinquency.” (Iowa Board of Eugenics Records, State Archives, R.G. 37, Box 30, Case 813)

This case showed that African American youth were not allowed to have behavioral issues and risked school officials referring them to the Eugenics Board for minor problems. Another Black man’s patient file noted that although he was an “average” intelligence for his race and was pleasant, he was referred to the Board for not sleeping well and being tired at work. (Iowa Board of Eugenics Records, State Archives, R.G. 37, Box 30, Case 464) Cases like these showed that African Americans could be sterilized for small details in their personal lives.

Eugenicists in Iowa tried to protect their perceived ideals of the white race by controlling who from the local population could have children. Although some forms of eugenicist thoughts were more overtly violent than others, Better Baby contests and eugenic sterilization in Iowa were both tools to support beliefs that racial order could be controlled.

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The Iowa Baby Crop [Bold headline in all caps] THE IOWA BABY CROP [/End of headline] Des Moines Correspondence New York Herald: “Iowa’s idea”—the production of perfect babies—has truly taken a hold on the minds of Iowa’s women, and the suggestion first made a few months ago by Dr. Margaret V. Clark has developed into an earnest movement. No more will a child’s fathomless blue eyes win it a prize at a baby show. Scant are its chances of taking the ribbon unless its chest measures so much, its nerves respond to such and such a test, and its teeth are sound. Women’s clubs in the state have voted indorsements [sic] of the plan of Dr. Clark, and discussions of ancient poets and modern problems will be supplanted by consideration of the question of the scientific raising of children, because, declares Dr. Clark, is in the solution of the latter problem lies the solution of every other problem now confronting Iowa, every other state in this country and every other country in the world. Social and moral ills are the natural result of physical ills, Dr. Clark believes, and so she began promulgation of her doctrine. In addressing a meeting of a Des Moines club she made a ringing declaration that children should be scientifically “scored” as well as horses, cattle, sheep, dogs and various sorts of grain. This speech resulted in a conference later of women interested in sociological problems. Accordingly, when the Iowa state fair was held these women conducted a baby grading contest, and there was a bigger crowd in the building devoted to their work than there was where the men were tying ribbons on the live stock. Standards of perfections in weight, height, color, shape of head and condition of eyes, nerves and teeth were established, and the babies were stripped, placed upon tables and judged. Reports of the proceedings were features of many sessions of women’s organizations after that, and so interested were the members that baby shows of the districts were immediately decided on and held. Then after the measurements had been taken of a good share of the infant population of the state, the mothers turned to questions of scientific betterment. Dr. Clark was authorized to make a trip to Europe to study eugenics there and report on her return the most accepted methods of obtaining well born children and healthfully raising them. Dr. Clark will leave New York Dec. 12, and will spend four months in the hospitals of Berlin and two months in traveling on the continent and studying hospitals of other countries. She will be accompanied by her husband, also a physician, Dr. G. Hardy Clark of Waterloo. The two Doctors Clark have been married twenty-five years and, though childless, they have made a study of the care of children and of infant ills. Such confidence have the Iowa women, especially the members of the Iowa Federation of Women’s clubs and the Iowa Mothers’ congress, in the plan of Dr. Clark that they already are pointing to the time when it will be as great a recommendation for a man or woman to announce they were “Born in Iowa” as for manufactured articles to bear the label “Made in Madagascar.”
Prize Winning Babies A newspaper featuring the photographs of several infants and toddlers that participated in a recent Iowa State Fair. The headline reads: “Some Prize Winning Babies at the State Fair.” There are three rows of black-and-white images with five in each row for a total of fifteen children. All of the children are light-skinned. The first image of the first row features a young girl with dark, bob-length hair. She is sitting on a chair with a frilly, white dress on. She frowns at the camera. Under her image is the caption: Marvel Graham, Prairie City, Ia. Second rural girl, 24 to 36 months. The next photograph is another young girl in a white top. Her hair is dark and reaches her ears in an almost bowl-like cut. She does not smile, but her mouth is slightly open as she faces the camera. She is sitting on a wooden chair. The caption under her photograph reads: Margaret Smith, Minburn, Ia. Second rural girl, 24 to 36 months. The next photograph is another girl, with light brown-ish hair that reaches just above her ears. She is slightly grimacing and is looking to the bottom left of the camera. She is wearing a polka-dot dress with frills on the collar and sleeves and seems to be wearing a locket as well. She is sitting on the same wooden chair as in the other photos so far and has her hands placed in her lap. There appears to be a thin bracelet on her left wrist. The caption for her reads: Mary Huston, Des Moines, First city girl, 24 to 36 months. The next photograph is of a girl with short, blonde hair. She grins at the camera, and two front teeth are visible with a slight gap in the middle. She is wearing a black top and sitting on the wooden chair. The caption is: Ruth Bradley, Madrid, Ia, Sweepstakes girl, improvement class. The final photograph of this row is a young boy who is looking at the camera with a confused expression. His mouth is slightly open in a frown. He has short, straight blonde hair and is wearing a light-colored shirt with a small pocket with large buttons on the front, bottom right of it. He is sitting in the chair. The caption is: Robert Hall, Des Moines, First city boy, 24 to 36 months. In the second row, the first image is of a baby girl. She is wearing a frilly, light-colored outfit and has light-colored, short hair that only covers the crown of her head. She looks to the right of the camera and her mouth is slightly open. She is sitting in the chair and seems to have a small bracelet on her left wrist. The caption reads: Patricia Fleming, Diagonal, Ia. First rural girl, 12 to 24 months. The next photograph is of a slightly older toddler girl. She looks directly at the camera with a confused expression. Her hair curls slightly around her face and she is wearing a frilly outfit. Her hands are clasped slightly in front of her. Her caption reads: Bernadine Casebolt, Berwick, Ia. First rural girl, 24 to 36 months. The next photograph is of a baby girl who looks at the camera, distressed, in a 3/4 profile facing left. Her mouth is slightly open and she is almost bald, though she may have a tiny bit of light-colored hair on her head. She is wearing a slightly frilly frock and sits on the chair. Her caption reads: Patricia Meneough, Grimes, Ia. Second rural girl, 12 to 24 months. The next photograph is of a baby boy. He is facing the camera with his mouth slightly open. A few baby teeth are visible. He is wearing a loose light-colored shirt and is mostly bald, except for, potentially, a small amount of hair. He is sitting in the chair and his right hand is reaching forward slightly to grab something. His caption is: Hayden Smith, Des Moines, Third city boy, 12 to 24 months. The final photograph of this row is a young boy, who is looking distressed. He looks to the bottom right of the camera and seems very sad. His hair is very neat and parted on the side. It seems to be light brown or blonde. He is wearing a sailor-type outfit with a dark ascot. His shoulders slump slightly as he sits in teh wooden chair. The caption: Walter Erwin, Earlham, Ia. First town boy, 12 to 24 months. In the third row, the first picture is of a toddler boy. He is slightly angled toward the camera with his left ear more visible as the right side of his face is slightly turned away. His mouth is open but he looks directly at the camera. He is wearing a collared, light-colored shirt and his hands are on his lap in front of him. He appears to be holding something in his hands as he sits on the wooden chair. He has light-colored hair that is neat and parted to the right side of his head. The caption is: William Price, Earlham, Ia. First town boy, 24 to 36 months. The next photograph is of a slightly chubby boy. He looks at the camera with his mouth open. His top two front teeth are visible. His hair is blonde and in a bowl cut. He is wearing a light-colored shirt with a collar and is sitting on the chair. The caption is: Robert Vifquain, Ames, Ia. Fourth town boy, 24 to 36 months. The next photograph is of a toddler girl that is looking at the camera with a 3/4 profile, facing left. Her mouth is open. She is wearing a light-colored shirt and has short, brown hair. The caption is: Dorothy Boyd, Des Moines, First city girl, 12 to 24 months. The next photograph is of a young girl who is directly facing the camera, but her body is angled to the right. She is wearing a white dress and has large, inquisitive eyes. She has short brown hair in a bowl-cut. The caption: Helen Clouse, Des Moines, Fourth city girl, 12 to 24 months. The final image is of a toddler boy who is looking at the camera. He has a slight smirk on his face. His hair is short and seems to be either dark blonde or light brown. He is wearing a sailor-type shirt with a dark ascot. His caption is: William Reed, Berwick, Ia. Third rural boy, 24 to 36 months. A newspaper featuring the photographs of several infants and toddlers that participated in a recent Iowa State Fair. The headline reads: “Some Prize Winning Babies at the State Fair.” There are three rows of black-and-white images with five in each row for a total of fifteen children. All of the children are light-skinned. The first image of the first row features a young girl with dark, bob-length hair. She is sitting on a chair with a frilly, white dress on. She frowns at the camera. Under her image is the caption: Marvel Graham, Prairie City, Ia. Second rural girl, 24 to 36 months. The next photograph is another young girl in a white top. Her hair is dark and reaches her ears in an almost bowl-like cut. She does not smile, but her mouth is slightly open as she faces the camera. She is sitting on a wooden chair. The caption under her photograph reads: Margaret Smith, Minburn, Ia. Second rural girl, 24 to 36 months. The next photograph is another girl, with light brown-ish hair that reaches just above her ears. She is slightly grimacing and is looking to the bottom left of the camera. She is wearing a polka-dot dress with frills on the collar and sleeves and seems to be wearing a locket as well. She is sitting on the same wooden chair as in the other photos so far and has her hands placed in her lap. There appears to be a thin bracelet on her left wrist. The caption for her reads: Mary Huston, Des Moines, First city girl, 24 to 36 months. The next photograph is of a girl with short, blonde hair. She grins at the camera, and two front teeth are visible with a slight gap in the middle. She is wearing a black top and sitting on the wooden chair. The caption is: Ruth Bradley, Madrid, Ia, Sweepstakes girl, improvement class. The final photograph of this row is a young boy who is looking at the camera with a confused expression. His mouth is slightly open in a frown. He has short, straight blonde hair and is wearing a light-colored shirt with a small pocket with large buttons on the front, bottom right of it. He is sitting in the chair. The caption is: Robert Hall, Des Moines, First city boy, 24 to 36 months. In the second row, the first image is of a baby girl. She is wearing a frilly, light-colored outfit and has light-colored, short hair that only covers the crown of her head. She looks to the right of the camera and her mouth is slightly open. She is sitting in the chair and seems to have a small bracelet on her left wrist. The caption reads: Patricia Fleming, Diagonal, Ia. First rural girl, 12 to 24 months. The next photograph is of a slightly older toddler girl. She looks directly at the camera with a confused expression. Her hair curls slightly around her face and she is wearing a frilly outfit. Her hands are clasped slightly in front of her. Her caption reads: Bernadine Casebolt, Berwick, Ia. First rural girl, 24 to 36 months. The next photograph is of a baby girl who looks at the camera, distressed, in a 3/4 profile facing left. Her mouth is slightly open and she is almost bald, though she may have a tiny bit of light-colored hair on her head. She is wearing a slightly frilly frock and sits on the chair. Her caption reads: Patricia Meneough, Grimes, Ia. Second rural girl, 12 to 24 months. The next photograph is of a baby boy. He is facing the camera with his mouth slightly open. A few baby teeth are visible. He is wearing a loose light-colored shirt and is mostly bald, except for, potentially, a small amount of hair. He is sitting in the chair and his right hand is reaching forward slightly to grab something. His caption is: Hayden Smith, Des Moines, Third city boy, 12 to 24 months. The final photograph of this row is a young boy, who is looking distressed. He looks to the bottom right of the camera and seems very sad. His hair is very neat and parted on the side. It seems to be light brown or blonde. He is wearing a sailor-type outfit with a dark ascot. His shoulders slump slightly as he sits in teh wooden chair. The caption: Walter Erwin, Earlham, Ia. First town boy, 12 to 24 months. In the third row, the first picture is of a toddler boy. He is slightly angled toward the camera with his left ear more visible as the right side of his face is slightly turned away. His mouth is open but he looks directly at the camera. He is wearing a collared, light-colored shirt and his hands are on his lap in front of him. He appears to be holding something in his hands as he sits on the wooden chair. He has light-colored hair that is neat and parted to the right side of his head. The caption is: William Price, Earlham, Ia. First town boy, 24 to 36 months. The next photograph is of a slightly chubby boy. He looks at the camera with his mouth open. His top two front teeth are visible. His hair is blonde and in a bowl cut. He is wearing a light-colored shirt with a collar and is sitting on the chair. The caption is: Robert Vifquain, Ames, Ia. Fourth town boy, 24 to 36 months. The next photograph is of a toddler girl that is looking at the camera with a 3/4 profile, facing left. Her mouth is open. She is wearing a light-colored shirt and has short, brown hair. The caption is: Dorothy Boyd, Des Moines, First city girl, 12 to 24 months. The next photograph is of a young girl who is directly facing the camera, but her body is angled to the right. She is wearing a white dress and has large, inquisitive eyes. She has short brown hair in a bowl-cut. The caption: Helen Clouse, Des Moines, Fourth city girl, 12 to 24 months. The final image is of a toddler boy who is looking at the camera. He has a slight smirk on his face. His hair is short and seems to be either dark blonde or light brown. He is wearing a sailor-type shirt with a dark ascot. His caption is: William Reed, Berwick, Ia. Third rural boy, 24 to 36 months.
Babies the New Iowa Idea [Italicized Headline] “Babies the New Iowa Idea” Discussed in Eastern Journal [/End Heading] “Babies the New Iowa Idea” is the heading of a page article which appeared in last Sunday’s issue of the North American of Philadelphia, together with pictures of Dr. Margaret V. Clark of Waterloo, Iowa, “who was sent to Europe to get points on the Improvement of Babies”; and of Mrs. F.S. Watts of Audubon, Iowa, “President of the State Congress of Mothers”. As a conspicuous sub-head is the statement, “It’s really an ideal, and the women of the state are literally scouring the earth in order to realize it”. Continuing, the article says: “From an importance rated lower than that of hogs to the rank of cherubic divinities in a temple built in their honor—that seems likely to be the remarkable rise to favor of babies in the estimation of the sovereign state of Iowa within a year. “Hitherto, so far as the state board of agriculture has been concerned, the hogs have had the babies rooted out of the pen. The mothers of Iowa, when they awoke to the faith that, if competition in hogs makes better hogs, competition in babies makes better babies, pitched right into the hog question and made it their slogan for state aid to the movement for improving babies. “They have won their first fight very handily. The babies of Iowa are going to figure prominently at the next state fair, and the state has been induced to offer prizes, which will be a confession that one first-class baby is worth at least two first-class hogs. But what mother would be content with that—and especially mothers like those new militant ones of Iowa, who, having once taken up the cause of the baby against all other products of the state, bar none, are enlisted in the fight for the rest of their lives? “Women—and men, too—thousands of miles removed from the spot where those Iowa babies are to be exhibited in classes and judged as scientifically as the hogs, are watching with intense interest what has already taken on the name of the Iowa Experiment.” [Bolded Sub-Head] Heading the Movement. [/End Sub-Head] Regarding the women who are heading the movement, the writer of the article says: “It was devised, encouraged, developed and set in motion by the Iowa Mother’s Clubs. It was originated by Mrs. F. S. Watts, of Audubon, president of the Iowa Congress of Mothers, who will be superintended of the first great Iowa baby show at the Iowa state fair. “Dr. Margaret V. Clark, of Waterloo, Ia., one of the earliest agitators in the movement, is the official physician for the mothers, and under their auspices has gone to Europe for a year’s study of eugenics—the science dealing with the production and development of children—in the leading educational institutions and hospitals of Germany, France and England. She is also author of the official baby score card, which has been copyrighted and is at the disposal of the Iowa Congress of Mothers. This provides a scoring for the children on the quality of their muscles, teeth, nerves, skin, bone, sight—all the attributes that make up the physical being and many that are rated as belonging to the realm of psychology.” [Bolded Sub-Head] Dr. Clark in Egypt [/End Sub-Head] A post card received this morning from Dr. Margaret V. Clark now at Cairo, Egypt, says, “Every day is full of valuable experiences. Just one week ago we reached this land. The ride by rail from Alexandria to Cairo was fascinating. The latter city offers a greater field for the sanitarian. The condition of the women and children appeals most to me.”