{"id":15,"date":"2016-09-19T16:51:11","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T16:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/making-democracy-real\/?page_id=15"},"modified":"2019-04-16T20:25:04","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T20:25:04","slug":"the-negro-project","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/making-democracy-real\/the-negro-project\/","title":{"rendered":"The Negro Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Legal segregation, racist beliefs, and dire poverty blocked African Americans\u2019 access to health care, and the economic depression of the 1930s made a bad situation worse. At the end of the decade\u00a0Time<\/i>\u00a0magazine pronounced poor health among blacks to be the nation\u2019s most pressing health problem. (“Negro Health” 1940, 43). The well-being of mothers and children was a stark measure of this inequality. With diseases such as tuberculosis and syphilis going untreated, the risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth increased. African American rates of maternal and infant mortality, which already dwarfed those of whites, rose even higher.6<\/sup><\/p>\n

\"Infographic<\/a>
Figure 10. U.S. Children\u2019s Bureau graphic depicting racial disparity in maternal and infant mortality, in Planned Parenthood Federation of America report, Better Health for 13,000,000<\/em>, 1943. Florence Rose Papers, SSC. (Click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

National attention turned to the South, where a large majority of African Americans lived. Southern cities, counties, and states were beginning to build public health systems, and some of them dispensed birth control, but they typically served only poor whites. Passage of New Deal health and welfare reforms, notably the 1935 Social Security Act and its provision for Aid to Dependent Children, raised hopes of federal action.<\/p>\n

Birth control organizations dispatched field representatives to the South in the late 1930s to assess the practicality of distributing contraceptive foam powder to poor women who lacked basic services such as running water. They found black women already organizing and stirring up interest. One field worker, Hazel Moore, told of a black mother who arrived at the dispensing site with her five children in tow. They had walked \u201ca good piece\u201d to get there, the mother reported. Asked if she could have left her children in the care of a neighbor, the mother replied, \u201cYes ma\u2019m, but dis here is my evidence so I can get dat control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\"DOCUMENT
Figure 11. “Birth Control for the Negro,” report by Hazel Moore, 1937. Florence Rose Papers, SSC. (Click to view full document)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n
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If black women\u2019s desire to limit pregnancies was evident, so were the obstacles. In one instance, several women came back to a dispensing site, cans of foam powder in hand. As Moore recounted it, the women explained that the evangelical minister of their Sanctified Church had disapproved and directed them to return the powder and profess their faith that \u201cde Lord will take care of me and my children.7<\/sup><\/p>\n

In the field projects birth control organizations were running and in the national concern for black health and poverty, Margaret Sanger saw an opportunity for a concerted effort in the South. Although Sanger was far removed from daily operations of the BCFA by this time \u2014 she had been sidelined to a position as honorary chair of the board and was living in Arizona — she continued to collaborate with Florence Rose, her longtime personal secretary, who had great enthusiasm for the venture. Rose remained at BCFA and spearheaded the initiative that became known as the Negro Project.<\/p>\n

In spelling out the rationale for a project that focused solely on African Americans, Rose and Sanger navigated a dense maze of political realities, bureaucratic constraints, demographic concerns, pseudo-scientific claims, cultural and religious beliefs, and racial and sexual attitudes. By and large, in the midst of economic crisis and world war, the appeal was to public health and general welfare, and these were malleable concepts.8<\/sup><\/p>\n\n

\"Notes
Figure 12. “Possible Results of Project,” a list of potential outcomes of a Negro Service program, which Margaret Sanger compiled for inclusion in a funding proposal to Albert Lasker, circa 1939. Florence Rose Papers, SSC. (Click to view full document)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n
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Some advocates were advancing eugenic arguments for birth control to prevent overpopulation by an underclass. Sanger accepted some eugenic beliefs; in keeping with prevailing views, notably the 1927 Buck v. Bell<\/i> ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court, which endorsed the sterilization of institutionalized individuals considered to be genetically flawed, she favored restricting reproduction by those with hereditary deficits. At the same time, she criticized as “cradle competition” any practices intended to control population by race, class or religion, whether by pressuring women in some groups to bear fewer children or by persuading others to bear more. (Sanger 1922).<\/p>\n

In the case of the Negro Project, Sanger gave an occasional nod to women\u2019s rights. She frequently cited the high rate of abortion as a measure of African American women\u2019s desire to avoid pregnancy and the risks they incurred to do so. Commenting on newspaper coverage of the project, she remarked that the headlines were more than news; they were \u201clifelines to the mothers we are dedicated to free.9<\/sup><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Figure 13. Letter from Margaret Sanger to Albert Lasker, explaining her rationale for a project for Negroes, November 12, 1939. Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. (Click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n
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Sanger and Rose saw promise in birth control as a community strategy of African American survival and progress. In their proposal for funding from philanthropist Albert Lasker, they touted the project as \u201ca unique experiment in the field of race-building, as well as in the field of humanitarian service for a race that has been subjected to discrimination, hardship and segregation.\u201d They made the case this way:<\/p>\n

Birth Control, per se, cannot correct the economic conditions that result in bad housing, overcrowding, poor hygiene, malnutrition, and neglected sanitation in which Negroes are forced to live through special social and economic pressure. But Birth Control can<\/span> reduce the attendant loss of life, health, and happiness that spring from these conditions in the form of excessive infant and maternal mortality among negro mothers, high morbidity rates, tuberculosis, syphilis, mental disease, epilepsy, rheumatism, heart disease, illiteracy, child-labor, ignorance and despair.10<\/sup><\/p>\n

Lasker agreed to fund the project, explaining to Sanger, \u201cI do not see how we can have the secure democracy for which our men are fighting and dying until we find a place of security and dignity for the Negro in our national life. If one minority is degraded, we are all affected, for we all belong to some minority.11<\/sup><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Figure 14. Letter from Margaret Sanger to Dr. Clarence J. Gamble, a longtime proponent and funder of efforts to make low-cost birth control available to poor women, white and black, in which she spells out her arguments for an educational rather than a medical approach among blacks, December 10, 1939. Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC (Click to view full document)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n
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In addition to spelling out different motivations and objectives, proponents debated competing strategies for implementing the work. Sanger was mindful of lessons from the Harlem Clinic, including critiques from the advisory board about distrust among blacks. She argued strenuously for a full year of \u201ceducation agitation\u201d before clinical\u00a0services would be introduced. She insisted that African Americans were best suited to do that groundwork, which would involve dispelling fears of genocidal intent and misconceptions that confused birth control with abortion. As she saw it, African American spokespersons stood the best chance of getting a hearing at the grassroots and convincing local leaders, especially ministers, to accept the benefits of contraception, or at least cease denouncing it.12<\/sup> Ministers were community gatekeepers, and their backing had proved essential to popular participation in earlier health campaigns for immunization and screening.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Figure 15. “Planned Parenthood,” a pamphlet distributed by the Division of Negro Service to black community leaders, with obvious appeal to men and their family responsibilities. Florence Rose Papers, SSC. (Click to view full document)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n
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Sanger also considered it a plus that ministers were men. After a quarter century on the front lines of the movement, she was keenly aware of male medical practitioners\u2019 bias against women, whether health professionals or organizers. She also knew that while men opposed granting women the autonomy to prevent pregnancy, they were averse to using condoms. Rather than attempt to change men\u2019s minds about condoms \u2013 and thereby cede men the balance of power in sexual relations — Sanger preferred a contraceptive method that enhanced women\u2019s say. A husband might be more accepting of his wife’s use of birth control, she mused, and a father might even educate his son to the practice, if the messenger was not only a minister but a male.13<\/sup><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Figure 16. Letter from Margaret Sanger to “Cele” (Mrs. Damon) in which she rejects plans that rely on encouraging black women to seek services at existing birth control centers, November 24, 1939. Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. (Click to view full document)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n
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Sanger and Rose did not succeed in winning the leaders of the new Birth Control Federation of America to their educational approach. The leaders favored a medical approach that would incorporate contraceptive services for blacks directly into existing white-run health programs. Southern officials and medical practitioners agreed, as did Lasker, who pledged $20,000 to the project. With funding secured and plans outlined, the BCFA created a Division of Negro Service to oversee the setup and operation of demonstration clinics in rural South Carolina and urban Nashville, Tennessee. The clinics ran from 1940 to 1942.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Figure 17. Letter from Margaret Sanger to Florence Rose, in which she expresses frustration with “the medical way” of distributing birth control, February 10, 1940. Florence Rose Papers, SSC. (Click to view full document)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n
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Even as the clinics began operations, Sanger and Rose remained convinced that \u201cthe medical way\u201d was wrongheaded, and they went ahead with their prefered community-oriented educational approach. With Sanger\u2019s support and ample fervor of her own, Rose solicited endorsements from major black organizations and medical groups. She also mounted a nationwide outreach campaign to put informational material in the hands of public health nurses, social workers, home demonstration agents, teachers, welfare workers and others who might influence public opinion or come in direct contact with women who lacked access to birth control.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Figure 18. “Plan Your Family for Health and Happiness,” a pamphlet distributed by The Division of Negro Service to current and prospective clinic patients in an effort to address frequent questions about birth control, undated. Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA I), SSC. (Click to view full document)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n
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Figure 19. “Program for Action,” a Birth Control Federation of America poster depicting the organization\u2019s approach to establishing birth control services, undated. Planned Parenthood Federation of America Records. (click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n
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In 1942, as the Negro Project was coming to an end, the Birth Control Federation of America took a new name, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). Planned Parenthood issued Better Health for 13,000,000<\/i> as a final report on the initiative.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Figure 20. Better Health for 13,000,000<\/i>, Planned Parenthood Federation of America report on the two-year initiative in African American communities, 1943. Florence Rose Papers, SSC. (Click to view full document)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n
\n\n<\/div>\n

In the end, the Negro Project had less impact than published accounts might suggest. It proved to be neither the genocidal plot that wary observers feared nor the breakthrough for women\u2019s autonomy and racial progress that optimistic promoters envisioned. At the demonstration clinics, the number of women seeking services fell far short of what planners had hoped, and the sites yielded no lasting model for serving poor women. Within BCFA, Sanger and Rose failed to drum up much enthusiasm for the work. They raised the start-up funds themselves, and no other donor stepped forward to match Lasker\u2019s investment and encourage Planned Parenthood to continue the project.<\/p>\n

Rose and Sanger\u2019s educational campaign may have had the greater effect. Not only did the community organizing effort spread factual information and positive arguments about birth control, but it engaged black women leaders who had the personal determination, social connections, and political vision to sustain the drive for women\u2019s sexual and reproductive rights over the long term.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Figure 21. Women in LaForge, Missouri, listening to speech by a visiting public health official of the Farm Security Administration, a New Deal agency, which collaborated with the Birth Control Federation of America to deliver birth control services in migrant labor camps, 1938. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, FSA\/OWI Collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u25ca \u25ca \u25ca<\/p>\n

\u00ab Previous: Creating Community Clinics<\/a> | Next: Leading Voices<\/a> \u00bb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Legal segregation, racist beliefs, and dire poverty blocked African Americans\u2019 access to health care, and the economic depression of the 1930s made a bad situation worse. At the end of the decade\u00a0Time\u00a0magazine pronounced poor health among blacks to be the nation\u2019s most pressing health problem. (“Negro Health” 1940, 43). The well-being of mothers and children … Continue reading The Negro Project<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":8,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-15","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/making-democracy-real\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/making-democracy-real\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/making-democracy-real\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/making-democracy-real\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/making-democracy-real\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":148,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/making-democracy-real\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1154,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/making-democracy-real\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15\/revisions\/1154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/making-democracy-real\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}