Tennessee
Number of Victims
This state did not have a sterilization law.
Passage of Law(s)
While no compulsory sterilization law was ever enacted in the state of Tennessee, in 1960 the Tennessee State Medical Association compiled material pertaining to other states’ sterilization legislation. With this information Dr. Joseph J. Baker, Commissioner of the State Mental Health Department drafted a sterilization bill. This bill was discussed by the House of Delegates of the State Medical Association of Tennessee who recommended further study of the issue. No further action was taken (Paul, p. 573).
Precipitating factors and processes
Tennessee was included in a series of surveys performed under the National Committee for Mental Hygiene (NCMH). By 1920 the NCMH had conducted surveys on feeble-mindedness in five Southern states, including Tennessee, that were chosen in order to prepare eugenic measures (Noll, p. 16).
Institutions
for the “Feeble-minded”
Recent Controversy
In 2004 James L. Hart of Tennessee ran for the House of Representatives for Tennessee’s Eighth District. Hart ran on a racist platform that explicitly supported eugenics stating that he desires a country populated by the “favored races” of Europe and Asia rather than “unfavored races” of Africa. He believes that without the elimination of welfare and “unfavorable” immigration, the United States will become “one big Detroit,” a city with a high African American population. "If an individual demonstrates the ability to produce and contribute to society, he or she would be encouraged to have more children. People on welfare would not," Hart told the Associated Press (McDowell). Hart ran as an unopposed Republican candidate in the state’s primary and represented the party only briefly upon his nomination, as he was disavowed by the GOP soon after the election. At this point he continued to campaign for the seat by encouraging supporters to write him in on the ballot but was defeated by incumbent Democrat John Tanner (“Tennessee Election Results”). Hart ran as a write-in again in the 2006 election (James Hart for Congress Committee).
Bibliography:
James Hart for
Congress
Committee. 2006.
“James
Hart for Congress.” Available at
<http://www.jameshartforcongress.com>.
McDowell, Amber. 2004. “Candidate causes stir in congressional campaign over his support for eugenics.” Associated Press.
Noll,
Steven.
1996. Feeble-minded in our midst:
institutions for the mentally retarded in the South. Chapel
Hill: University
of North Carolina Press.
Paul, Julius. 1965.
"'Three Generations of Imbeciles
Are Enough': State Eugenic Sterilization Laws in American Thought and
Practice." Unpublished manuscript. Washington, D.C.: Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
“Tennessee
Election Results.
2004. Washington
Post. Available at
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/elections/2004/tn/>.
Tennessee.gov: Department of Finance & Administration: Division of Mental Retardation Services. “Clover Bottom: About Clover Bottom.” Available at <http://www.tennessee.gov/dmrs/dev_centers/clover_bottom/index.html>