Number
of Victims
The
eugenics project in Arkansas never actually resulted in sterilizations
of mentally ill, mentally deficient, or otherwise.
Precipitating factors and processes
In
the early 1930s, at the height of the eugenics movement in America,
Arkansas had been hit very hard not only by the Great Depression, but
by a terrible drought making them one of the poorest states in the
country (Leung, “Better Babies,” pp. 57-58). Even so, Herbert
Hoover’s administration would not give food to the people of Arkansas,
so they instead asked for contraceptives to prevent having more
children that they could not support (Leung, “Better Babies,” p.
58). At the same time, people in Arkansas believed that local
birth control clinics, such as the Little Rock clinic, helped to
prevent the “undesirable” people of society from adding to the future
gene pool. According to medical experts, people with undesirable
characteristics should limit the number of children they produce while
people with desirable characteristics should have many children. They
believed that intervention was more humane than natural reproduction
(Leung, “Better Babies,” p. 56).
Groups targeted and victimized
The
groups targeted in Arkansas were targeted purely as people who should
receive birth control. The main focus was poor white women
(Leung, “Better Babies,” p. 52). Other people seen as undesirable
were people who were not emotional stable, who had weak character, who
were not considerate of other people, unintelligent, unable to adapt,
and unoriginal as well as those who were a burden on their community
(Leung, “Better Babies,” p. 57).
Major Proponents
The
largest proponent of eugenics and birth control in Arkansas was Hilda
Cornish. Born in 1878 in St. Louis, Missouri to German immigrants
Sophie and Rudolph Kahlert, her early life observing working-class
struggles taught her about different life experiences. While raising
her six children, Cornish volunteered on the board of managers of the
State Farm for Women, a correctional facility, and as the manager of
the Arkansas Federation of Women Clubs. She also led volunteers
aiding victims of the flood of 1927. After her husband committed
suicide, Cornish devoted all her time to reform and social work.
After meeting and collaborating with Margaret Sanger, the founder and
leader of the American Birth Control movement, she launched the
Arkansas Birth Control movement. With a group of physicians,
business and religious leaders, and women active in civic work, Hilda
formed the Arkansas Eugenics Association. The association opened
the Little Rock Birth Control Clinic in 1931 for poor white women to be
able to get contraceptives. It was not open to African-American
women until 1937. Cornish also worked with the National Committee
of Federal Legislation for Birth Control. Eventually, the
Arkansas Eugenics Association limited its work to referrals and
education and changed its name to the Planned Parenthood Association of
Arkansas. Hilda Cornish died November 19, 1965 (Leung, “Cornish”).
“Feeder institutions” and institutions where sterilizations were performed
Although
there were no institutions where sterilizations were performed in
Arkansas, very important to the eugenics movement was the Little Rock
Birth Control Clinic which provided poor white women with safe
contraceptives (Leung, “Cornish”).
Opposition
There
was not much public resistance to the Birth Control movement in
Arkansas because the activists opted to associate publicly with the
eugenics movement, in contrast to the American Birth Control League and
Margaret Sanger (Leung, “Cornish”).
Leung,
Marianne. 1994.
"Better Babies: Birth Control in Arkansas in the 1930s." Pp. 52-68 in Hidden Histories of
Women in the New South,
ed. Virginia Bernhard. Columbia: University of Missouri
Press.
Leung,
Marianne. 2008. “Hilda
Cornish (1878–1965).” Available at <http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1625.>