The American Eugenics Society put up displays and organized contests at fairs to promote eugenics to the general public
After the 1921 Second International Congress on Eugenics, many prominent eugenicists joined to form a U.S. national eugenics society to promote eugenics to the public. State fairs proved to be particularly good forums for educating the public. In addition to its flashing-light exhibit, the society set up charts explaining the laws of Mendelian inheritance and how they determined human types. “Unfit human traits,” the American Eugenics Society advised the American public, “run in families and are inherited in exactly the same way as color in guinea pigs.” To further its point, the American Eugenics Society organized “Fitter Families” contests, with entrants submitting family histories, undergoing psychiatric exams, and taking IQ tests, all in the hope that they would be deemed Grade-A humans. Winning families joined other best-of-show livestock—pigs, goats, cows—in end-of-fair parades, the humans riding in automobiles decorated with banners proclaiming them the state’s “best crop.”
References
- Whitaker, Robert. (2002). Mad in America Chapter 3. UNFIT TO BREED (p. 88). New York, NY: Basic Books.