An Unfinished Journey:

Eugenics and Dehumanization 

The late 1800s and early 1900s saw the rise of the eugenics movement. The National Institutes of Health describes eugenics as "the scientifically erroneous and immoral theory of racial improvement and planned breeding, which gained popularity during the early [1900s.]" Eugenicists believed that involuntary sterilization, segregation, and exclusion would eliminate those deemed unfit.

In 1924, Virginia passed a law that allowed the involuntary sterilization of institutionalized people with developmental disabilities. Carrie Buck, a 17-year-old woman who was committed to a state institution, challenged the state's decision to sterilize her. In 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Ms. Buck's challenge and upheld Virginia's Sterilization Act. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who authored the opinion, callously wrote:

"Three generations of imbeciles are enough."

Photo: Black and white photo of Carrie Buck and Emma Buck sitting on a bench outdoors. On the left a younger female with short dark hair wearing a long loose dress has her hands folded in her lap. An older woman with lighter hair in a bun on top of her head wearing a long gingham dress sits on the right.

Meanwhile, Charles F. Dight, a doctor in Minneapolis, founded the Minnesota Eugenics Society in 1923. He helped write Minnesota's bill authorizing the sterilization of people with disabilities.

Hitler's Nazi party modeled Germany's sterilization laws on America's immoral eugenics theories. Dight wrote to Hitler in 1933, praising Hitler's "plan to stamp out mental inferiority among the German people." Hitler responded by inviting Dight to Munich. Germany's laws led to the sterilization of hundreds of thousands of disabled people. During World War II, Hitler's Nazi government murdered about 200,000 people with disabilities deemed "unworthy of life." Others with disabilities were subjected to inhumane and unconscionable medical experiments.
The passing of a Minnesota bill led to the involuntary sterilization of at least 2,204 people between 1925–1945, 77% of whom were women.

Photo: A group of black citizens and uniformed black firefighters are taking down a green street sign. Everyone in the photo is looking up at the sign as several hold the strings to pull it down, photo courtesy of the City of Minneapolis.

Charles Dight – the link to the Hitler letter: 
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/P1628/pdfa/P1628-00001.pdf

Charles Dight – the link to the Minnesota Historical Society Collection:
https://libguides.mnhs.org/eugenics