The Eugenics Movement In The 1920's

Walter Plecker, joined by pianist John Powell and ethnographer Earnest S. Cox, were the three leading figures of the Anglo-Saxon Clubs. Together, they were part of a broad movement in the 1920s and 1930s to develop policy inspired by eugenics. Rooted in the Progressive Era ethos of reform, eugenic theories proved palatable to a large segment of the public—welfare workers, public health advocates, and white supremacists—committed to applying the principles of biology and medicine to what they perceived as the problems of modern society. As the science of “race improvement,” the eugenics movement focused on the identification and isolation of those considered biologically unfit. Because one’s social position was often viewed as proof …show more content…
Influenced by eugenics’ preoccupation with separating the fit from the unfit, Cox began to push for the repatriation of black Americans to Africa, arguing that the only biologically sound nation was the one in which the races were geographically separate. Spearheaded by Cox, the campaign garnered the support of Marcus Garvey, leader of the United Negro Improvement Association. Garvey, Powell, and Cox corresponded frequently throughout the 1920s, the three men sharing a strong commitment to racial separatism. Cox expanded upon the theme of repatriation and the superiority of white civilization in his anti-miscegenation treatise White America. This 1923 publication offered an overview of civilizations Cox believed to have perished because of miscegenation. In writing White America, Cox aimed chiefly to advocate for a strong eugenics program that would preserve the biological fitness of native-born white Americans. The “ideal of eugenics,” according to Cox, was the absolute maintenance of white purity. The book received the endorsement of many notable eugenicists, including Madison Grant and Harry Laughlin, and even became part of the University of Virginia’s biology