Eugenics in Minnesota

In Minnesota, [[Developmental disability|developmentally disabled]] people, most of whom were women, were involuntarily committed to state guardianship and [[Sterilization (medicine)|sterilized]], By current standards, many of those who were either committed to state guardianship or sterilized would not be considered disabled. Eugenic ideals were popular in the state during much of the early to mid 20th century.

[[Minnesota]] was the 17th state in the United States that enacted laws which legalized [[Eugenics|eugenic]] practices.<ref name=":5">Ladd-Taylor, Molly. "[https://storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-org-support/mn_history_articles/59/v59i06p237-248.pdf Coping With a "Public Menace": Eugenics in Minnesota]". ''Minnesota Historical Society''. Retrieved 2024-05-22</ref> The practice of [[eugenics]] aims to improve the genetic quality of a population which has historically occurred through [[selective breeding]], [[Compulsory sterilization|forced sterilization]], and [[genocide]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Eugenics and Scientific Racism |url=https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Eugenics-and-Scientific-Racism |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=www.genome.gov |language=en}}</ref>

== Background == In 1917, under pressure from Minnesota's Child Welfare Commission, 35 new laws were passed that related to children in the state,<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Warren |first=Sasha |date=2020-04-13 |title=In the name of eugenics, Minnesota sterilized more than 2,000 people |url=http://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2020/04/in-the-name-of-eugenics-minnesota-sterilized-more-than-2000-people/ |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=MinnPost |language=en-US}}</ref> called the Children's Code.<ref name=":5" /> These laws gave the state the authority to involuntarily commit children who were "[[Feeble-minded|feebleminded]]", dependent, neglected, or "delinquent" to state guardianship. County probate judges were given the ability to commit any "feebleminded", "inebriate", or "insane" person without the consent of parents, guardians, or nearest kin.<ref name=":6" /> This policy was shaped by Arthur C. Rogers, superintendent of the Minnesota School for the Feebleminded in [[Faribault, Minnesota|Faribault]], who supported compulsory commitment in the state. He also pushed for forced sterilization in Minnesota.<ref name=":5" /> [[File:MN1893 pg054 STATE SCHOOL AT FAIRBAULT FOR THE FEEBLE MINDED.jpg|thumb|[[Faribault State Hospital|Minnesota School for the Feebleminded in Faribault]] ]] In 1911, Rogers arranged for research to occur in Minnesota on the families of the "feebleminded". Two fieldworkers from the Eugenics Record Office in [[Cold Spring Harbor, New York]] came to Minnesota to study families of inmates at the Minnesota School for the Feebleminded. The results of the study showed an "appalling amount" of hereditary "defectiveness" in Hog Hollow, a community in Minnesota. The report, ''Dwellers in the Vale of Siddem'', depicted mentally ill and disabled people as social menaces and described the living conditions of those in Hog Hollow as lower than that of animals. ''Dwellers in the Vale of Siddem'' advocated against the reproduction of the "feebleminded" and laid a foundation for eugenics in the state.<ref name=":5" />

From 1924 to 1959, probate judges and Mildred Thomson, director of the control board's Bureau for the Feebleminded and Epileptic, made decisions on which children to commit to institutions. Two physicians were supposed to be present for a decision to be made. This rule, however, could be eluded if the person was "obviously feebleminded". Factors like physical health, family relations, school and work records, home environment, [[Lookism|appearance]], and [[Intelligence quotient|IQ scores]] influenced commitment decisions. Those who did not speak [[English language|English]] were vulnerable to commitment because of an inability to pass English-language IQ tests. Low economic status and atypical behavior were considered symptoms of "feeblemindedness", which led to disproportionate commitment rates of [[Working class|working-class]] women.<ref name=":6" />[[File:Portrait of Lotus Coffman.jpg|thumb|upright|Lotus Coffman, President of the University of Minnesota]] At the [[University of Minnesota]], University President [[Lotus Coffman]] supported eugenic principles regarding [[racial segregation]].<ref name=":10">{{Cite web |title=How Leaders of the University of Minnesota Used and Abused Power : A Campus Divided |url=https://acampusdivided.umn.edu/how-leaders-of-the-university-of-minnesota-used-and-abused-power/ |access-date=2024-05-23}}</ref> Coffman was president of the university from 1920 until 1938.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-05-01 |title=University Of Minnesota Refuses To Rename Building Honoring Anti-Semitic Dean |url=https://forward.com/fast-forward/423510/university-of-minnesota-racist-anti-semitic-coffman-nicholson/ |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=The Forward |language=en}}</ref> Coffman believed that racial segregation and a [[racial hierarchy]] was natural. He also believed that this "natural order" should be maintained by the control of reproduction. He thought that white, [[Protestant]] people should be allowed to reproduce, while people of color, Jewish, and [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] people, as well as those with disabilities should have their reproduction controlled.<ref name=":10" />

Rogers brought Frederick Kuhlmann, a psychologist, to the state, who would become one of Minnesota's most effective advocates for eugenics usage.<ref name=":5" /> In 1910, Kuhlmann, director of research at the [[Faribault State Hospital|Faribault School for the Feebleminded]], pushed for IQ testing as a measure for "defectiveness".<ref name=":6" /> He administered IQ tests of thousands of Minnesotan students.<ref name=":5" /> He also helped to develop [[special education]] classes in the public schools of Minnesota to segregate student populations.<ref name=":6" /> Kuhlmann was an advocate for statewide testing of students so that those not immediately recognizable as "feebleminded" could be better identified and managed. This work led to a higher percentage of Minnesotans being labeled as "feebleminded".<ref name=":5" />

Once under the guardianship of the state, individuals could not [[Voting|vote]], make their own medical decisions, or own property. The vague definition of "feeblemindedness" led to the institutionalization of many "troublesome noncriminals" as a form of segregation, forcing them to leave their home communities and indefinitely institutionalizing them.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ladd-Taylor |first=Molly |year=2019 |title="Ravished by Some Moron": The Eugenic Origins of the Minnesota Psychopathic Personality Act of 1939 |url=https://muse-jhu-edu.cordproxy.mnpals.net/pub/122/article/722018 |journal=[[Journal of Policy History]] |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=192–216 |doi=10.1017/S0898030619000022 |via=Project MUSE|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

By 1924, with 27 people were being committed every month, 1,802 people were placed under state guardianship. This policy caused state institutions to exceed their holding capacity and become overcrowded. Today, the majority of these new commitments would not be regarded as having a [[disability]]. County judges who usually had little training in [[social work]] were placed in charge of committing Minnesotans to state institutions. In many cases, IQ tests were used as evidence to wrongfully send whole families into state guardianship. The results of later tests proved that they were not "feebleminded". Eugenics was seen as a way to reduce the overpopulation problem in state institutions and most of the survivors were discharged three months after sterilizations were performed on them.<ref name=":5" />

== Baby Health Contest == Rogers gave lectures on the topic of eugenics at the [[Minnesota State Fair]] in 1913. The fair also hosted the Baby Health Contest, which was grounded in eugenic ideology, that aimed to show off "human fitness". At the fair, Rogers stated that prize-winning babies were not necessarily complete models of "human fitness", instead claiming that the babies might be tainted with "an ancestry with a history of defectiveness."<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |last=LaCasse |first=Written by Laura Leppink and Sarah Pawlicki {{!}} Designed by Morgan |date=2023-06-27 |title=Eugenics and Euthenics at the "Great Minnesota Get-Together" |url=https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/36759aaef79442df94ebcab0326a1bef |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=ArcGIS StoryMaps |language=en}}</ref>

When he assessed babies for "fitness", Rogers looked for certain characteristics, which he called ''stigmata'', to search for "defectiveness". Stigmata included shape of the ears, the underside of the jaw, racial angles, and asymmetry. These characteristics were purposely [[Racism|racist]]. The Baby Health Contest occurred in a 20 feet by 20 feet glass cage, which allowed the public to watch nurses and physicians, including Frederick Kuhlmann, examine the babies.<ref name=":7" />

Rogers and others promoted the idea that a single baby did not provide much data on the hereditary information they contained. Because of this, Dight and other eugenicists endorsed "Fitter Family" contests which examined whole families for "defectiveness". "Fitter Family" contests were never held at the Minnesota State Fair.<ref name=":7" />

== Minnesota Eugenics Society == [[Charles Fremont Dight]], a [[Minneapolis]] physician, is accredited as bringing the eugenics movement to Minnesota in the early 1920s. He approached this through eugenics education, limitations placed on marriages, and the segregation and sterilization of "unfit" individuals.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=MNHS Reference |title=LibGuides: Eugenics in Minnesota: Charles Fremont Dight: Overview |url=https://libguides.mnhs.org/eugenics/ov |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=libguides.mnhs.org |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Eugenics in Minnesota {{!}} MNopedia |url=https://www.mnopedia.org/thing/eugenics-minnesota |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=www.mnopedia.org}}</ref> Dight was a resident physician at the [[Shattuck-Saint Mary's|Shattuck School]] in [[Faribault, Minnesota]] and later took a position as professor of physiology at [[Hamline University|Hamline Medical School]] in [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|Saint Paul]]. Between 1921 and 1935, Dight wrote over 300 articles on eugenics that appeared in Minnesota newspapers as well as hosting radio talks and lectures on the subject.<ref name=":3">Hatle, Elizabeth Dorsey (2013). ''The Ku Klux Klan in Minnesota''. The History Press. {{ISBN|9781626191891}}.</ref> In his editorials, Dight often compared human reproduction to the selective breeding techniques used in agriculture.<ref name=":1" /> He was also an outspoken supporter of [[Adolf Hitler]] and his [[Nazi eugenics|eugenics program]], praising his efforts to "stamp out mental inferiority".<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Buchanan |first=Nicholas Buchanan, Petra |date=2016-03-21 |title=Down syndrome awareness day, Dight Ave., and the persistence of intolerance |url=http://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2016/03/down-syndrome-awareness-day-dight-ave-and-persistence-intolerance/ |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=MinnPost |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Welter |first=Ben |title=Oct. 14, 1914: Dight Avenue's Hitler connection |url=https://www.startribune.com/oct-14-1914-dight-avenue-s-hitler-connection/153894385/ |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=Star Tribune}}</ref><ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20110724235202/http://chgs.umn.edu/histories/letterHitler.pdf Letter to Hitler from Charles Dight]" (PDF). Minnesota Historical Society. Archived from [https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/collections-exhibitions/narratives-and-testimonies the original] (PDF) on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 15 May 2021.</ref> In response, Hitler invited Dight to [[Munich]].<ref name=":8">The Minnesota Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities. [https://mn.gov/mnddc/banners/banner06.html "An Unfinished Journey: Civil Rights for People with Developmental Disabilities and the Role of the Federal Courts: Banner 6: Eugenics and Dehumanization"] (2024). ''www''.''mn.gov.'' Retrieved 2024-05-23.</ref>

In 1923, Dight organized the Minnesota Eugenics Society, which campaigned for a statewide eugenics law.<ref name=":2" /> Members of the society included doctors, surgeons, scientists, lawyers, psychiatrists, physicians, and ministers. [[Albert Jenks|Albert E. Jenks]], founder of the [[University of Minnesota]]'s [[anthropology]] department, and E. P. Lyon, the dean of its [[University of Minnesota Medical School|medical school]], were supporters of the Minnesota Eugenics Society. The society's members were all male, and lived throughout the entire state.<ref name=":7" /> Dight was voted as president of the Minnesota Eugenics Society on February 2, 1927 during its first annual meeting<ref name=":3" /> and remained president until his death in 1938.<ref name=":1" />

=== Sterilization law of 1925 === In 1925, the [[Minnesota Legislature]] passed a bill, drafted by Representative [[Edwin L. MacLean]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lombardo |first=Paul A. |title=Republicans, Democrats, & Doctors: The Lawmakers Who Wrote Sterilization Laws |journal=The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics |date=2023 |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=123–130 |doi=10.1017/jme.2023.47 |issn=1073-1105 |pmid=37226752|pmc=10209985 }}</ref> which would sterilize the "feebleminded" and "insane", living in the state's [[Lunatic asylum|mental asylums]].<ref name=":2" /> Dight considered people who were mentally ill, developmentally disabled, [[Epilepsy|epileptic]], criminals, and "sexual deviants" to be "feebleminded".<ref name=":7" /> Governor [[Theodore Christianson]] signed this bill into law. This law took effect on January 8, 1926. On this day, eight women living in a mental asylum in Faribault were sterilized.<ref name=":3" /> Unlike many other states in the United States, Minnesota's sterilization law required the consent of the person being operated on and the consent of their spouse or nearest kin.<ref name=":6" /> However, when deemed incompetent—which many of the "feeblemineded" and "insane" were—the state was allowed to make this choice in the absence of a guardian.<ref name=":1" /><ref>[https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1925/0/Session+Law/Chapter/154/pdf/ "Chapter 154—H. F. No. 469"]. ''Minnesota Revisor's Office.'' Retrieved 2024-05-22.</ref> [[File:George G Eitel-ca1914.jpg|thumb|upright|Dr. George G. Eitel, vice president of the Minnesota Eugenics Society and sterilization surgeon]] [[George G. Eitel|Dr. George G. Eitel]], vice present of the Minnesota Eugenics Society, performed the first 150 sterilization surgeries in the state. A consultation with a psychologist, usually Kuhlmann, was a requirement for the operation. This consultation always included at least one IQ test.<ref name=":5" />

Dr. David J. Vail became the director of the Minnesota Department of Welfare in 1961, and, under his leadership, the rate of sterilizations dropped. In 1975, the law was altered to provide Minnesotans with a larger protection from sterilizations. Forced sterilization is still sanctioned in the state when authorized by a [[court order]].<ref name=":5" />

== Impact == At least 2,204 Minnesota residents were sterilized because of the 1925 law. 77 percent of those sterilized were women.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kaelber |first=Lutz |date=2012 |title=Minnesota Eugenics |url=https://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/MN/MNold.html#:~:text=Eugenics%20was%20popular%20in%20Minnesota,year%20between%201928%20and%201944. |website=University of Vermont}}</ref> The true number of those sterilized is unknown because Minnesota did not have an agency that tracked sterilizations, unlike other states.<ref name=":1" /> The impact of sterilization was not as substantial as Dight had hoped it would be. Dight had hoped to sterilize nearly 10 percent of the state's population.<ref name=":4" />

Eugenics remained highly approved by many Minnesotans for decades after its institution in the state. Minnesotans like [[Charles Lindbergh]],<ref name=":1" /> [[Charles Horace Mayo|Dr. Charles Mayo]], and [[William James Mayo|Dr. William Mayo]] were supporters of sterilizing the "unfit". The Mayo brothers founded [[Mayo Clinic]]. Dr. Chalres Mayo was very outspoken in his support of eugenics and the ''[[Kansas City Times]]'' called him an "apostle of the school of eugenics." Dr. William Mayo declined an invitation from Charles Fremont Dight to join the Minnesota Eugenics Society as its vice president in 1926.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-05-04 |title=Charles, William Mayo supported eugenics, but it was Charles who called for the sterilization of the 'unfit' |url=https://www.postbulletin.com/news/local/charles-william-mayo-supported-eugenics-but-it-was-charles-who-called-for-the-sterilization-of-the-unfit |access-date=2024-08-01 |website=Rochester Post Bulletin |language=en}}</ref>

Dight Avenue in Minneapolis was named for Charles Fremont Dight<ref name=":4" /> until March of 2022, when it was renamed to Cheatham Avenue, in honor of [[John Cheatham]], Minneapolis's first Black fire captain.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |date=2022-03-17 |title=South Minneapolis street renamed in honor of John Cheatham |url=https://www.fox9.com/news/south-minneapolis-street-renamed-in-honor-of-john-cheatham |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=FOX 9 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":8" /> After the [[murder of George Floyd]], as a program to divest from [[white supremacy]], the Minnesota Disability Justice Network and [[Andrew Johnson (Minnesota politician)|City Council Member Andrew Johnson]] worked to rename the street.<ref name=":7" /> On March 17, 2022, the avenue was renamed to Cheatham Avenue.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":8" />

In his [[Will and testament|will]], Dight left his estate to the [[University of Minnesota]] to found the Dight Institute for the Promotion of Human Genetics, later named the Institute for Human Genetics, which remained active until the 1960s.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-08-01 |title=Minnesota's eugenics past |url=https://www.mprnews.org/story/2011/08/01/minnesotas-eugenics-past |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=MPR News |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> [[File:MCF-Faribault Orthoimagery.png|thumb|Minnesota Correctional Facility – Faribault, which operates on the former grounds of the Minnesota School for the Feebleminded]] The [[Faribault State Hospital|Minnesota School for the Feebleminded]] closed in 1998 and the [[Minnesota Correctional Facility – Faribault]] now operates on its grounds.<ref name=":5" />

Many Native American communities still face the effects of [[Transgenerational trauma|intergenerational trauma]] caused by the residential schools.<ref name=":13">{{Cite web |title=Native American Boarding Schools {{!}} MNopedia |url=https://www.mnopedia.org/native-american-boarding-schools |access-date=2024-06-03 |website=www.mnopedia.org}}</ref> The [[University of Minnesota Morris]] now operates on the campus of the [[Morris Industrial School for Indians]], an American Indian boarding school operated by the [[Sisters of Mercy]] in [[Morris, Minnesota|Morris]].<ref name=":14">{{Cite web |title=American Indian Boarding Schools in Morris {{!}} University of Minnesota Morris |url=https://morris.umn.edu/about-morris/american-indian-boarding-schools-morris |access-date=2024-06-03 |website=morris.umn.edu}}</ref><ref>The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. [https://boardingschoolhealing.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/NABS-Boarding-school-list-2021-acc.pdf "American Indian Boarding Schools by State"]. Retrieved 2024-06-03</ref> Native American students receive free tuition to the university due to a federal mandate.<ref name=":14" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Financial Aid for American Indian Students {{!}} University of Minnesota Morris |url=https://morris.umn.edu/native-american-student-life/financial-aid-american-indian-students#:~:text=The%20University%20of%20Minnesota%20Morris%20will%20admit%20American%20Indian%20students,same%20basis%20as%20other%20students. |access-date=2024-06-03 |website=morris.umn.edu}}</ref> As of 2018, over 20% of the students at the Morris campus identify as Native American. In other University of Minnesota campuses, only 2.5% of the student population identify as Native.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-10-15 |title=Tuition waiver helps Native American students in Minnesota |url=https://apnews.com/article/2dd50ee3850341929cbfc7090713c1eb |access-date=2024-06-03 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref>

== Depiction == Sterilization and state guardianship in the Minnesota School for the Feebleminded is depicted in "Sequel to Love", a fictional [[short story]] by [[Meridel Le Sueur]]. In the story, Margaret is placed in the institution after she became pregnant while unmarried. Margaret is told that she will be unable to leave the institution until she becomes sterilized. She refuses to consent to a sterilization and remains an inmate at the conclusion of the story.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ladd-Taylor |first=Molly |title=Fixing the Poor: Eugenic Sterilization and Child Welfare in the Twentieth Century |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |year=2017 |isbn=9781421423722 |location=Baltimore, Maryland |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Writing Red: An Anthology of American Women Writers, 1930-1940 |date=1987 |publisher=Feminist Pr. at the City Univ. of New York |isbn=978-0-935312-77-5 |editor-last=Nekola |editor-first=Charlotte |location=New York |editor-last2=Rabinowitz |editor-first2=Paula}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Eugenics in the United States]] * [[Sterilization law in the United States]] * [[Charles Fremont Dight]]

== Notes == :a. {{note|number}}{{note|number1}}Two boarding schools were located in both Ponsford and White Earth. == References == {{reflist}}

[[Category:Eugenics in the United States]] [[Category:History of racism in Minnesota]] [[Category:Health in Minnesota]] [[Category:Native American boarding schools]]