May 2: Supreme Court rules on Eugenics

On this date in History .... 1927:  

“Three generations of imbeciles are enough!” 

Those were the famous words of Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes when the Supreme Court decided the case of Buck v. Bell, ruling that eugenics laws (laws permitting sterilization) of the unfit, “including the mentally retarded” did not violate the Due Process clause of the 14^th amendment, upholding as constitutional Virginia’s compulsory sterilization of young women considered “unfit to continue their kind.”  The decision has been viewed as “the attempt to improve the human race by eliminating ‘defectives’ from the gene pool.” 

The mother, daughter and granddaughter in this case were considered “feeble-minded and promiscuous” and the court accepted that as reason for sterilization.  It has been since argued that Carrie Buck was not “feeble-minded” but was put away to hide the scandal of having been raped by her adoptive mother’s nephew and was instead labeled as promiscuous when she ended up pregnant.

(Watch for my May 9th post with more background on the eugenics topic.)

January 20: 1st Non-White Elected to Congress

On this date in History ..... 1870:

Senator Hiram Revels

Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first non-white elected to the U.S. Congress, serving as Senator from Mississippi during Reconstruction.  He was born free in No. Carolina and attended the Union County Quaker Seminary in Indiana.

 

His election to the Senate was challenged because election to the senate required a 9-yr prior citizenship. The argument brought forth was that black men were not considered citizens prior to the 1868 passage of the 14^th amendment, therefore he was only a “citizen by law” for only 2 years.

 

The prevailing argument, however, was that the Dred Scott case applied only to those of pure African blood, and since Revels was of mixed ancestry, it didn’t apply to him, therefore he was a citizen.

 

On Feb 25, 1870 he became the 1^st black man to be seated in the Senate.

 

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