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Selective Public Memory?
A local controversy provides a salutary reminder about eugenics.
Posted September 22, 2009
The naming of a new park after noted eugenicist William Shockley has drawn international attention to the small town of Auburn, California. The town council is caught in a bind: They accepted the park, and its name, apparently without being aware of Shockley's racist and eugenic opinions, and now they are drawing widespread criticism.
This is unfortunate for Auburn, but a useful reminder for the rest of us, about an issue that has never entirely gone away but is all too often forgotten. The term "eugenics" was coined in Britain, by Francis Galton in 1883, but the idea was popularized in the U.S. It was the basis of the 1924 Immigration Restriction Act, which discriminated against Jews, Italians and other "socially inadequate" groups, as defined by an "expert eugenic agent." It was also behind sterilization laws in 33 states, which in turn were the basis of the Nazi's 1933 law in Germany, the first public step toward the genocidal "final solution."
This is an appalling history, of which everyone should be aware. One important part of it is that the supporters of 20th-century eugenics included many in the mainstream, some of them very distinguished people of every political persuasion. They included Presidents Coolidge and Hoover, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Alexander Graham Bell and many others.
The current issue involves a distinguished scientist. William Shockley shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics for inventing the transistor. In later years, however, he devoted much of his time and energy to genetics, work that he regarded as more important than his role in launching the semiconductor industry. He called himself a "raceologist" and focused on "dysgenics" which is of course merely the opposite of eugenics. (In using that term, he had a point -- breeding to make people "better" never caught on but sterilizing or even murdering "inferior" people was practical, and practiced.)
Shockley insisted that he was not a racist, even while claiming that African Americans are inherently less intelligent than whites. He also suggested that society should pay people with IQs less than 100 to be sterilized. He seemed to relish controversy, and campaigned for his point of view -- which might have been normal in the 1920s but fortunately had fallen way out of favor by the 1960s -- until his death in 1989.
He was survived by his widow, who lived until 2007, and bequeathed 28 acres to Auburn for a park, stipulating that it be named "Nobel Laureate William B. Shockley and his wife Emmy L. Shockley Memorial Park." (He never lived there, but the family had ties with the area; the town already has Shockley Road, Shockley Court and Shockley Woods Court.) The local Park District accepted the gift in March, and was evidently surprised when it provoked quite a local outcry.
On August 31st, the Wall Street Journal picked up on the story; so did the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. And now the NAACP has weighed in. Their local branch is on record as supporting efforts to "prevent the Auburn community from bearing the stain of racism." The District, however, insists that the name is a done deal.
How to acknowledge and learn from the past remains controversial. Several states have issued formal apologies for past eugenics abuses, including California. North Carolina is considering how to atone to any remaining survivors of the state's eugenic program, which ran from 1929 to 1974. More than 7,600 people were sterilized under the law, which was finally repealed in 2003; compensation bills are in process now.
This is not just a history lesson. Though the violence, coercion and discrimination that characterized 20th-century eugenics are universally condemned, there are still advocates for the idea that human beings can be "improved" -- nowadays usually through market-based gene technologies. Some do not call it eugenics, on the grounds that government coercion is not involved; others frankly admit their eugenic intent. Either way, the issues remain, and deserve continuing attention.
Auburn does have an example to consider in nearby Sacramento. The state capital has renamed a high school (now Rosa Park High School) and a park (Riverbend) that used to commemorate the prominent local eugenicist Charles M. Goethe. His name, which incidentally is pronounced Gay-tee, not like the German polymath, is gradually disappearing from the California State University campus there (CSUS), which he helped develop: The University Arboretum is no longer the Goethe Arboretum, and the former Goethe House is now the Julia Morgan House, after its famous architect.
Sacramento's changes were the result of a long education effort, including a 2005 Symposium, "From Eugenics to Designer Babies: Engineering the California Dream," which covered the history and also placed it in a modern context. That event included a reception at the Julia Morgan House, which Goethe's bequest had designated as a eugenics museum; it is not. He would have been disappointed by the critical materials assembled for the conference. Many of them are available at a website on the history of eugenics in California.
Similarly, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which used to house the Eugenics Record Office, has compensated by setting up a Eugenics Archive. This invaluable resource includes historic images, facsimiles of old documents and explanatory essays.
Another website may not be what we need. But perhaps some similar permanent historical exhibit would help Auburn out of the unfortunate bind the town is now in.
