The Eugenics Movement

In further researching, I have come to realize that it would not be wise to limit my study of the Eugenics Movement to a single figure such as Charles Davenport. Instead, I will analyze the key proponents of the movement as a whole and pull evidence from specific events and historical figures. David Starr Jordan and Francis Galton, along with Davenport, made extremely bold claims that formed the basis of the Eugenics movement. Historians have made connections to these scientific theories and hypothesis all across the world. Places such as Nazi, Germany or the US and Mexican Border have used claims coming from the Eugenics Movement as base for their racist and oppressive acts towards minorities. Hitler deemed people of Jewish decent not human and simply different, an idea that is said to have been originated from the "American Eugenics Movement campaign for ethnic cleansing" (Black 1). Science is used as justification for pure racism; scientific racism. David Starr Jordan developed the idea of race and blood with the Eugenics Movement, an idea that would used to forbid Mexicans or people of Latin descent to migrate to America as it was forged that they possessed diseases. Eugenics is "the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. Developed largely by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race"(Google definition). Ironically enough, the scientific study developed to 'improve' the human race took a slight turn for the worst. This forces me to wonder more about the fact this movement is largely left out of many history lessons. I've have began to understand the complexity to eugenics and the scientific aspect of it, but its history and storyline needs to be told. My perception of how to approach the topic has changed now that I understand the Eugenics movement, developed by Galton, was intended to help the human race. Why did it become something else, much larger and more powerful than intended? Were the researches and scientist of this movement racist? The more I research, the more intrigued I am about the topic. I feel that something isn't completely there and there are missing pieces to the story. But that is the beauty in hidden history. 

The Secret Narrative: Lost History

For this assignment, I've chosen to work with historical figure Charles Davenport. In part due to his absence in school history lessons and also the direct impact he has had on historical events everyone has studied and has substantial knowledge about. In researching Davenport, I came across a term that seems straightforward, but one that I had never heard before; "scientific racism". The term was extremely appealing, as I had never come across it before in research or discussion. What does it mean?  These are two very common words that we use endlessly with much thought; science and race. But what happens when you put them together? Does it answer or lead us to answers about the disparities and disconnects that we see in historical events or movements? I feel it may put some sense to historical accounts we know little about, whether it be good or bad. This is a good candidate for re-evaluation because we are still diving into the topic of racism, but a foreign aspect to all of us. Charles Davenport and the Eugenics movement are new pieces of history to us and in a sense this re-evaluation is also an introduction. That mere fact is frightening, once we understand the role Davenport and Eugenics played in a mass genocide we thought we knew so much about. Furthermore, the phenomenon of racism also comes up again, in a new light, and that in itself is in intriguing. It's upsetting that such a powerful movement and figure failed to reach to the textbooks, and ultimately the mind of young intellectuals.