What will Puget Sound do Next?

The “History of Eugenics at Puget Sound and Beyond” website examines the intellectual, cultural, and social history of eugenics. However, scholarship on the history of eugenics provides just one component of the many avenues of reckoning and repair that are needed in order to create a more just present and future.

This page contains resources and scholarship on three fronts: First, how other institutions and states have pursued the difficult work of repair and – in some states – reparations. The focus of such work is on the acknowledging the experiences of those effected by eugenic thinking and policies. Second, the scientific community (especially geneticists) continues to wrestle with whether and how eugenic thinking persists within science, and how to avoid repeating the past. Third, universities and colleges’ debates over what renaming a building does and does not accomplish. Each section inspires the question: Having renamed our Natural History Museum, what will Puget Sound do Next?

Part 1: State-centered Initiatives

NORTH CAROLINA – SURVIVORS, LEGISLATION, and REPARATION DEBATES

REEL SOUTH’s PROGRAM – THE STATE OF EUGENICS (NPR NEWS): “Between 1933 and 1974, the state of North Carolina ran one of the most aggressive eugenics programs, sterilizing more than 7,600 men, women and children. This film follows the journey of survivors, legislators and journalists who insist the state confront its role in the tragic, forced sterilization of thousands of Americans thought to have “undesirable” genetics.”

CALIFORNIA – SURVIVORS, LEGISLATION, and REPARATION DEBATES

Professor Natalie Lira on “Eugenic Sterilization, Reparations, and the Legacy of Anti-Latinx Medical Racism in California.” Professor Lira’s talk was sponsored by THE REPAIR PROJECT, based at the University of California, San Francisco, and designed to address anti-Black racism in science and medicine. Professor Lira is the director of the Sterilization and Social Justice Lab.

OREGON – SURVIVORS, LEGISLATION, and REPARATION DEBATES

Eugenics – in the Shadow of Fairview (OPB). An overview of the eugenics movement in Oregon and Governor Kitzhaber’s gubernatorial apology in 2002 for the sterilization of more than 2,500 individuals under Oregon state law.

Part 2: Scientists - Wrestling with the Past, Present, and Future

The mapping of the human genome and the promises of genetic medicine have inspired important discussions and debates among scientists, bioethicists, and the broader public over the extent to which eugenic thinking persists.

Part 3: Doing more than renaming

Local and national discussions about renaming buildings and institutions are part of broader debates about the relationship between commemoration and historical memory. Institutional responses to these debates have varied: some have shied away from such conversations, others have embraced the challenge of developing complex and holistic plans for assessing naming and commemoration practices while wrestling with the complex legacies of the past. Some names have been changed; others have been kept. Below you can find blogs, scholarship, and news coverage of debates taking place nationally and internationally regarding buildings and institutions named after eugenicists and/or biologists.

David Starr Jordan (1851-1931)~ Chancellor of Stanford University, influential biologist and one of the main popularizers of eugenics

October 27, 2018: Jordan Hall renaming discussed at PACE Event (Indian University)

April 23, 2019: Renaming of David Starr Jordan Middle School in Burbank (California)

August 13, 2020: Students Scrub names of Racist Leaders – Students say it’s a First Step

Biologist C.C. Little (1888-1971) ~ University of Michigan biologist

April 17, 2016: Op-Ed: Questioning C.C. Little’s Legacy

March 29, 2018: University of Michigan to Remove L ittle, Winchell Names from Campus Facilities

Theodore Roosevelt (1859-1919) – U.S. President and conservationist

The American Museum of Natural History Museum’s Exhibit: Addressing the Statue

June 24, 2020: We don’t have to like them. We just need to understand them (The New York Times).

June 21, 2020: Roosevelt Statue to be removed from Museum of Natural History (The New York Times)

June 27, 2020: Removing the Statue (TR and Others). Letters to The New York Times