The eugenics movement in the 1920s specifically targeted poor white women for sterilization; simultaneously, the movement feared poor white women engaging sexually with Black men, combining anxiety about class purity with anxiety about racial purity.
factualpending
Speaker
Nancy EisenbergEvidence Quote
“in the eugenics movement at the same time the eugenics movement was widely popular in this country in the 1920s which targeted poor white women they were seen as the the the group that should be sterilized...they were very afraid because many poor blacks and poor whites lived in the same neighborhood...there was also a danger on top of that that you know poor white women are going to be the the group that is going to be more likely to want to engage with sex with black men”
Source
Nancy Isenberg - White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America— Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter CollegeCreated: 8/12/2026, 6:12:44 PM
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