Mississippi Appendectomy: America's Pro-Eugenics Past

Ali Margolies

I created a collage of newspaper clippings describing instances of forced sterilization during the time with Fannie Lou Hamer in the center, as she was the biggest leader and voice to women who were stripped of bodily autonomy.

America has a long and grueling history of sexual violence toward women- especially black women. For far too long men have violated women's bodies as a means to assert dominance and dehumanize us. Fannie Lou Hamer is a shining example of a woman fighting back to have her voice heard after she was unknowingly violated by doctors. She received a forced hysterectomy during a minor surgery that was supposed to be for removing a small cyst from her stomach. Women that received involuntary hysterectomies were sterilized permanently, therefore unable to have children which proved to be absolutely devastating. This practice was so common in fact, that Hamer coined the term "Mississippi appendectomy" in regards to her experience in needing a small appendectomy but getting a "Mississippi" one- AKA a hysterectomy. Healthcare facilities are often overlooked when it comes to thinking of women being violated in them. Unfortunately it was an all too common theme for forced sterilization.

The United States is often thought to be the birthplace of eugenics ideas. It is known that evil leaders such as Hitler took notice of America's racist ideals during the Jim Crow era, inspiring the actions to enforce what traits are and are not desirable. The blonde hair and blue eyes rhetoric may come to mind as Hitler's ideas of desirable traits which is more or less a way to describe white people. Eugenics is an immoral and unethical theory that can be thought of as planned breeding in order to pass on what are deemed the best traits. In this case, Hamer was forcibly violated and abused because being black was seen as undesirable and many would do what they could to sterilize women's bodies to prevent them from having children. My heart goes out to all of the women who were stripped of their bodily autonomy and right to have children.

References

McGuire, D. L. (2011). At the Dark End of the street: Black women, rape, and resistance- a new history of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the rise of Black Power. Vintage Books.

Pearce, J., Szal, R., & Baker, C. N. (2020, October 28). Mississippi appendectomies: Reliving our Pro-Eugenics Past. Ms. Magazine. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://msmagazine.com/2020/10/28/ice-immigration-mississippi-appendectomies-usa-eugenics-forced-coerced-sterilization/

Tafesse, K. (2019, May 1). What the 'Mississippi appendectomy' says about the regard of the state towards the agency of Black Women's Bodies. The Movement for Black Womens Lives. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://blackwomenintheblackfreedomstruggle.voices.wooster.edu/2019/05/01/what-the-mississippi-appendectomy-says-about-the-regard-of-the-state-towards-the-agency-of-black-womens-bodies/