North Carolina had an official state sterilization and eugenics program that wasn’t dismantled until the 1970s. In my own research and supporting that of others, I wondered: why does UNC specifically have the papers of the Human Betterment League? This was an organization founded in 1947 in Winston-Salem by James Gordon Hanes, underwear baron. One aspect is that Hanes was an alumnus of and benefactor to UNC-Chapel Hill, but more significantly, numerous founders of and leaders in the state eugenics movement were in Chapel Hill.

Some of the most lauded and respected experts in education, psychology, sociology, obstetrics, anatomy, and other sciences in the state of North Carolina passed through the ranks of both UNC faculty and the Human Betterment League in its decades-long existence. Although one has to intentionally delve into membership lists and publications of the League in order to determine this association: notably few seemed proud enough of work with the League to mention it in eulogies. Indeed, they themselves diminished and whitewashed their affiliation: when pressed by the Winston-Salem Chronicle in 1992, for example, many years after the ultimate dissolving of the League, co-founder Dr. C. Nash Herndon outright lied that the League only existed for 10 years and that it never advocated for sterilization of people with disabilities or low IQ. Even more audaciously he claimed that race was never a factor, while also admitting the percentage of Black people sterilized “may have been higher.” By the time the state dismantled its eugenics program in the 1970s, the Human Betterment League had shifted its focus to birth control and genetic testing as a form of eugenics, but before this, the League overtly espoused sterilization. Evidence is in the archive.

It should be noted that eugenics was of course not unique to North Carolina: this was a nationwide movement with sterilization of “abnormal” and “unfit” people happening across the country for years before Hanes started the NC chapter of the Human Betterment League. The Human Betterment Foundation of the United States was founded in Pasadena in 1928. While there was opposition and concern, by proponents it was seen as both modern and progressive. In 1938, the Chapel Hill Weekly reported “128 Sterilization Operations Performed in This State Last Year.” It is very interesting to note the timing of the founding, 1947, considering that Nazi eugenics and the Holocaust did not at all discourage or deter white academics and business leaders in North Carolina to formally organize and advocate for population control. The Human Betterment League considered what the Nazis did a misuse of eugenics.

From its beginnings, the Human Betterment League had deep connections to UNC-Chapel Hill and the UNC System as well. Hanes was mentioned but another family in Winston-Salem with UNC ties who supported the work of the League was the Gray family. Bowman Gray, Sr., whose father had started Wachovia Bank, attended UNC for a year and became a lifelong financial supporter of the university. His son Gordon Gray was President of the University of North Carolina System 1950-1955. Gordon’s aunt Alice Gray was a longtime secretary of the League. Quite obviously, there are reasonable implications of inappropriate influence on higher education in the state by the white elite politician-business class in North Carolina .

This 1947 article announces officers and directors for the League based out of Winston-Salem and reveals numerous Chapel Hill and UNC connections:

Re-elected Vice President of the Human Betterment League is Dr. Arthur Melville Jordan. Dr. Jordan was a eugenicist and Professor of Educational Psychology at UNC-Chapel Hill. He was a founder and lifelong leader of the League. One of his studies, funded by James G. Hanes, was 1948’s “Efficiency of Group Tests of Intelligence in Discovering the Mentally Deficient.” The clear intention, typical of the League, was to manipulate the structure of studies in a way to find evidence to promote their sterilization programs among the rural population, which they deemed unfit because of their lack of education, low class, and inclination towards poverty, which to the League were the result of inherent traits. These studies, including Jordan’s, unsurprisingly showed no difference in intelligence between rural and urban children. Pseudoscience ran rampant within the administration of this organization.

The next people I want to highlight are the early Directors of the Human Betterment League in Chapel Hill. UNC Sociology Professor Gordon W. Blackwell became the Director of the Institute for Research in Social Science, now known as the Odum Institute, in 1942. 1947 saw him join the ranks of the League Board of Directors. In 1957, Blackwell became Chancellor of the Women’s College, now called UNC Greensboro. From a biographical entry about Blackwell: “During his career Blackwell published much on the sociology of the South, community life and development & higher education. He was a prolific contributor to scholarly and professional journals and wrote or collaborated on nearly a dozen books. He edited Studies of Southern Resources and Southern Forces and has been active in numerous professional and regional organizations.” Clearly, Blackwell’s influence and reach within higher education in the South was immense: after his leadership role at UNC Greensboro, he became President of Florida State University (1960-1965) and then President of Furman University.

Another Director was Dr. William D. Perry who was a Professor at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Education. Dr. Perry was a eugenicist and a lifelong leader of the Human Betterment League. Perry taught in the School of Education from 1939-1973. UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Education has an award named for him, for “unwavering adherence to ethical and professional standards.” What would be illuminating is to have a look at what he was teaching students in the School of Education during his tenure.

Jordan, Blackwell, and Perry showed up in the 20th (1967) and 25th (1972) anniversary commemorations as members of the Board of Directors.

The next part of this thread has to do with Robert Wilson Madry, one-time Mayor of Chapel Hill (1942-1949) and long-time head of the UNC News Bureau. Madry was a eugenicist and a Director of the Human Betterment League in its earliest days.

Madry was serving as Mayor of Chapel Hill when he was also serving on the Board of the Human Betterment League. How this intersects needs to be better investigated and understood – beyond testing, what else did Madry and Chapel Hill eugenicists do to further population control in the Town and the County? This is a photo of him from 1949 traveling with the UNC football team to Yankee Stadium!

Throughout its existence, the Human Betterment League sought to popularize and normalize sterilization. In 1950, Moya Woodside, at the time a Howard Odum acolyte and Research Assistant in the Institute for Research in Social Science at UNC, published Sterilization in North Carolina: A Sociological and Psychological Study with UNC Press. Woodside presents eugenic sterilization as an “innovation unprecedented in human history” with the potential for “positive action for human welfare.” She indicates that the Board and the eugenics experts at UNC were very aware of ethical objections to sterilization, partly based in the “misuse of sterilization in Hitler Germany.” America’s eugenicists fought hard to convince opponents that any sterilizations taking place were not forced or involuntary like in Germany during the war, but rather despite the low IQ and general unfitness of abnormal people, they regardless somehow also understood and consented to procedures. Woodside points to the ignorance and superstition inherent to Black people in the South as reasons for their unfounded resistance to being sterilized.

In the preface of Woodside’s book she thanks Dr. Gordon W. Blackwell as well as Dr. Katharine Jocher who had “unstintingly given of their time to advise, instruct, and criticize, and what I have gained from them is of lasting value.” Jocher was a close collaborator of Howard Odum‘s and involved with such organizations as the North Carolina Interracial Commission and the Committee on Services for Children and Youth in North Carolina. Indeed, whether formally involved in the leadership of the Human Betterment League or simply a member of the faculty of the Institute for Research in Social Science at UNC, the entire department of sociology at UNC was quite obviously deeply involved in eugenics work. The current-day Department of Sociology at UNC-CH has a Katharine Jocher Graduate Student Paper Award in her honor.

UNC’s relationship to and involvement with eugenics didn’t start or end with the Human Betterment League, and neither with eugenicist Edwin Alderman (UNC President 1896-1900): race science and its sibling eugenics were very much a part of the teaching and learning at UNC going back to the 19th century. Anatomist Dr. Charles Staples Mangum became Professor of Physiology at UNC in 1896 and would become Dean of the Medical School 1933-1937. Notably, he also helped found the University’s School of Public Health. In 1900, he was a member of the Chapel Hill White Supremacy Club along with his brother, Adolphus. At a campus lecture in 1918 Mangum talked about the inherent inferiority of Black people. According to the Doctor, the “pitiable” living conditions of Black people are due to their brains being underdeveloped, leaving them lacking self-control and initiative.

The UNC-CH Medical School offers a Charles S. Mangum scholarship.

This thread so far looks at the earliest days of the Human Betterment League, but Chapel Hill’s eugenicists continued to administer and promote the League well into the 20th century. If there is any question at all if the League continued to espouse outright eugenics, even if moving away from loudly calling for sterilizing low IQ/poor people (poor because they have low intelligence) and “abnormal” people, this is its statement in 1967, 20 years after its founding:

The Human Betterment League of North Carolina is a voluntary agency working for the conservation of North Carolina’s human resources. Its main purpose is the education of the public in family planning and in population problems and control, with particular emphasis on the prevention of births of mentally defective children.

Therefore, it is worthwhile to mention some of the other very notable figures associated with UNC (and the surrounding area) who joined and led the League, and maintained it into its later years. Moving into the 1960s it is incredibly important to note that many if not all of the white League leaders were also seen as actively “improving race relations” in the midst of the Civil Rights era, as “human rights” activists. For many, even James Hanes, desegregating schools was a cause they supported and to them did not contradict their continued belief in eugenics and population control of people they deemed inferior. Indeed, it could be argued that to them, eugenics did not “see color.”

Guy Benton Johnson and Guion Griffis Johnson. Guion joined the League in 1957 and served as its President 1965-1967 and her husband, Guy, was on the Board of Directors. The Johnsons were very high profile scholars at UNC. They started work at the Institute for Research in Social Science (now Odum Institute) in 1924, where Guy served as professor in the Department of Sociology. The Johnsons were some of Howard Odum’s first research assistants. Surely, Gordon Blackwell was not just a colleague but a friend. More work and reckoning is required to reconcile how sociology as a discipline, and liberal/Progressive scholars like the Johnsons at UNC specifically, led the field in studying, ostensibly to “improve,” conditions of the “poor and disadvantaged,” particularly people of color, alongside espousing population control and eugenics for the same population. Guy’s papers and Guion’s papers are at Wilson Special Collections Library.

The Four Gynecologists: Robert Alexander Ross, Charles H. Hendricks, Roy Turnage Parker, Charles E. Flowers, Jr.

Dr. Robert A. Ross was a Human Betterment League Director and an obstetrician and gynecologist. He was professor of obstetrics at Duke University and first chairman of the Department of Obstetrics at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Dr. Charles H. Hendricks was a Human Betterment League Director and also was a practicioner and professor of obstetrics and gynecology. He came to UNC-Chapel Hill in 1968. During his time at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Hendricks served as a professor and chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Hendricks retired as a Robert A. Ross Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology emeritus in December 1988. Hendricks’s papers are at Wilson Special Collections Library.

Dr. Roy T. Parker was a Human Betterment League Director. He went to Duke Hospital in 1953 as Professor and became Chairman of OB-GYN in 1964, serving in that capacity until 1980. He was made F. Bayard Carter Professor in 1970. In Duke’s School of Medicine there is a Roy T. Parker Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Dr. Charles E. Flowers, Jr. Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UNC School of Medicine before moving to Baylor in 1966. There is clearly a disturbing element to a gynecologist espousing eugenics, and recalls doctors like J. Marion Sims who in the 19th century engaged in race science and experimented on enslaved Black women.

Another figure involved with the League at UNC-Chapel Hill was John Wilson. Wilson was the Director of Planning and Development in the Division of Education and Research in Community Medical Care, UNC-CH School of Medicine. Dr. Henry T. Clark, another Board member, was Administrator of the Division of Health Affairs at the University of North Carolina 1950-1965. His papers are at Wilson Special Collections Library.

The roster of Human Betterment League leaders has astonishing overlap with a spectrum of academic fields and disciplines at UNC (and Duke and Wake Forest – this is for others to investigate). If we look at some of the scholarly areas most associated with Carolina like sociology (of the South)/rural studies, public health, Southern Studies, medicine, education: a perhaps surprisingly high number of notable and high profile scholars in these areas were also eugenicists in the early to mid 20th century. Or at least “eugenics-light” in their fundamental attitude that race is biology. Towards a reckoning, these disciplines would benefit from considering the extent to which their foundations are based in eugenics. What we should also be concerned with is the genealogy of eugenics within academia, scholarship, and faculty-advisee relationships: during the long tenures of eugenic scholars at UNC, what was their influence and reach as educators? How many students left UNC believing in eugenics and race science? Can this be assessed and calculated?

Clearly, too, even as the state of North Carolina continued its sterilization programs, the Human Betterment League was a Progressive cause to many white liberals, one that improved the lives of disadvantaged (poor, non-white) people and saved people who were “defective” from even having to be born. Preventing defective and abnormal people from being born in the first place means they would not be a burden to their families and probably more importantly, not burden the state and its resources, nor take taxpayer money (the money of rich people) for their care.

Some other notables in the League leadership roster throughout the years:

Mrs. James H. Semans. She isn’t listed under her real name, but this is Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans. Who was a eugenicist, apparently, as well as “a towering figure in progressive causes throughout her life, championing education, human rights and the arts.”

Herbert C. Bradshaw. A long-time editor of the Durham Morning Herald and taught journalism classes at NC State. Bradshaw was also a Board member of the Human Betterment League. His papers are at the Rubenstein Library, Duke University.

Dr. Eugene A. Hargrove. “From 1958 to 1973, Dr. Hargrove was commissioner of mental health for North Carolina.” Here’s another psychiatrist-eugenicist.

Mrs. McNeill Smith. This is Louise Smith, wife of Civil Rights lawyer McNeill Smith. Unbelievably, a Director of the Human Betterment League.

Dr. W. Banks Anderson, Jr. This guy was an ophthalmologist-eugenicist.

Mrs. Richard S. Lyman. Wife to Dr. Richard S. Lyman, the founding chairman of Duke’s Department of Psychiatry (1940).

Mrs. Samuel Clay Williams, Jr. Wife of Winston-Salem based Doctor.

Bishop Kenneth Goodson. W. Kenneth Goodson was a Methodist minister of immense renown, someone who was heralded as an integrator of the church during the Civil Rights movement, who also served on The Duke Endowment trustees board and became chairman of the endowment’s rural church division. Duke University’s Goodson Chapel is named after him. Goodson was a eugenicist and Board member of the Human Betterment League. “Goodson was an alumnus of the Duke Divinity School and later served as its bishop-in-residence. He received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Duke and was awarded the University Medal for Distinguished Meritorious Service in 1989. ‘Ken Goodson had the gift of prophetic leadership,’ said Divinity Dean L. Gregory Jones, ‘and his winsome spirit made him a beloved member of our community.'” – from ENDOWMENT TO FUND DIV SCHOOL CHAPEL, 2001.

The list goes on!

<The Human Betterment League Records are at Wilson Special Collections Library.>