Segregation's Science - (Carter G. Woodson Institute) by Gregory Michael Dorr (Paperback)

About the Book

Of interest to historians, educators, biologists, physicians, and social workers, this study reminds readers that science is socially constructed; the syllogism Science is objective; objective things are moral; therefore science is moralremains as potentially dangerous and misleading today as it was in the past.

Book Synopsis

Blending social, intellectual, legal, medical, gender, and cultural history, Segregation's Science: Eugenics and Society in Virginia examines how eugenic theory and practice bolstered Virginia's various cultures of segregation--rich from poor, sick from well, able from disabled, male from female, and black from white and Native American. Famously articulated by Thomas Jefferson, ideas about biological inequalities among groups evolved throughout the nineteenth century. By the early twentieth century, proponents of eugenics--the "science" of racial improvement--melded evolutionary biology and incipient genetics with long-standing cultural racism. The resulting theories, taught to generations of Virginia high school, college, and medical students, became social policy as Virginia legislators passed eugenic marriage and sterilization statutes. The enforcement of these laws victimized men and women labeled "feebleminded," African Americans, and Native Americans for over forty years.

However, this is much more than the story of majority agents dominating minority subjects. Although white elites were the first to champion eugenics, by the 1910s African American Virginians were advancing their own hereditarian ideas, creating an effective counter-narrative to white scientific racism. Ultimately, segregation's science contained the seeds of biological determinism's undoing, realized through the civil, women's, Native American, and welfare rights movements. Of interest to historians, educators, biologists, physicians, and social workers, this study reminds readers that science is socially constructed; the syllogism "Science is objective; objective things are moral; therefore science is moral" remains as potentially dangerous and misleading today as it was in the past.

Review Quotes

Segregation's Science offers a substantial contribution to the history of eugenics in the United States. Dorr begins his study well before the actual eugenics movement emerged, in the hereditarian ideas of Thomas Jefferson. This sets the stage very effectively, allowing Dorr to explore the complexity of race, of racial categories, and of changing scientific thinking on racial categories.

--Wendy Kline, author of Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality, and Eugenics from the Turn of the Century to the Baby Boom

About the Author

Gregory Michael Dorr is Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought, Amherst College.