The Eugenics Archive includes several examples of how African Americans endured dehumanizing scrutiny, categorization, and labeling at the hands of eugenicists and other Americans. Eugenicists believed that race mixing (miscegenation) produced “mongrels” and would lead to the decline of the “higher” white race; some strived to identify and register the race of all individuals to prevent it. “The New Virginia Law to Preserve Racial Integrity” was enacted in 1924 and provided racial definitions — terms like “mulatto”, “quadroon”, “octoroon”, and “sambo” — to identify mixed races and prevent intermarriage. Several other states passed similar laws and many had penalties for miscegenation — fines and/or prison terms of up to 10 years.

Race-mixing pedigree

Chromosome of Man

Eugenicists emphasized the supposed genetic differences among races and ignored the social and economic factors that might account for differences in behavior and customs. They attempted to apply science to the “color problem,” creating pedigrees and visualizing chromosomes to highlight race differences. Eugenicists lost credibility by focusing on race. Humans have very similar DNA and only a handful of genes determine the skin, hair, and eye characteristics that distinguish “races.”

Explore the topics “Race Mixing and Marriage Laws” and “Race and Ethnicity” in the Archive for more on eugenics and race.