Mississippi appendectomy

Mississippi appendectomy is slang term for the forced sterilization of Black women in the American south during the twentieth century. Between the 1920s and 1980s, thousands of poor Black women in southern states were sterilized without informed consent and permanently left unable to have children. This practice, which first emerged in conjunction with the broader eugenics movement aimed at preventing so-called “undesirables” from reproducing, was first brought to light by civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. Hamer, who was herself sterilized without her knowledge or consent in 1961, revealed the truth about forced sterilization when she shared her story with an audience in Washington, DC, several years later. Thanks in part to Hamer’s bravery in discussing her experience, the practice came to an end.

Background

The Mississippi appendectomy arose from the eugenics movement that gained popularity in the early twentieth century. The idea of eugenics was first introduced by Charles Davenport. A Connecticut-born biologist who studied genetics, Davenport believed that undesirable characteristics like criminality, poverty, promiscuity, and “feeble-mindedness” were genetically inherited traits that could be passed from one generation to the next. He further believed that it would be possible to minimize the prevalence of these traits over time by sterilizing people who exhibited them. This approach, Davenport theorized, would ultimately help to eliminate social ills and improve society.

Davenport soon made a concerted effort to promote his theory of eugenics. With funding provided by wealthy donors that include aristocratic American families like the Rockefellers and the Carnegies, Davenport embarked on a successful campaign to promote eugenics as a legitimate public health solution. His efforts to convince Americans that it was in the country’s best interest to support eugenics led to the passage of sterilization laws in thirty-one states, with the first being enacted in Indiana in 1907. The US Supreme Court eventually weighed in on eugenics in the 1927 Buck v. Bell case. In this case, the court upheld the sterilization of a seventeen-year-old girl with mental health concerns who became pregnant as the result of rape. The Buck v. Bell decision subsequently paved the way for more than sixty-thousand forced sterilizations from the 1920s to the 1970s.

The popularity of eugenics and forced sterilization began to decline in the years after World War II (1939–1945) after the Nazis used the idea of eugenics as a justification of their actions against the Jewish people in the Holocaust. Still, forced sterilization continued in many parts of the United States for some time. The number of forced sterilizations did not considerably decline until the eventual introduction of Medicaid reforms in the 1960s emphasized the importance of informed consent and patient autonomy.

Overview

With the rise of the eugenics movement, many American states began adopting laws that essentially dictated who was allowed to reproduce and who was not. These laws usually targeted groups of people judged to be socially undesirable for one reason or another. These groups included criminals, the impoverished, people deemed to be overly promiscuous, and those deemed “feeble-minded.” Sometimes, gender and race also figured into decisions about who should not be allowed to reproduce. Nowhere was this more frequently the case than in the American South, where poor Black women were regularly subjected to involuntary sterilization for decades. In North Carolina alone, 7,600 people were involuntarily sterilized between 1929 and 1974. Approximately 85 percent of these individuals were women and girls and 40 percent were people of color. Outside of North Carolina, the forced sterilization of Black women for population control purposes was also particularly common in Mississippi, which is why the practice became known in slang terms as a Mississippi appendectomy.

Forced sterilization was usually achieved through one of two surgical procedures. These included hysterectomy and tubal ligation. A hysterectomy is an operation during which the patient’s uterus is completely removed. Tubal ligation, also commonly known as “having one’s tubes tied,” is a procedure that results in the closure of the fallopian tubes so as to prevent the fertilization of egg cells by sperm. In many cases, the Black women who underwent Mississippi appendectomies were not only sterilized without consent, but also without even knowing that the procedure was being done.

One of the most well-known women to undergo a forced sterilization was civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. Born in Mississippi in 1917, Hamer spent much of her youth toiling in cotton fields near the Mississippi Delta. In 1961, she went to the hospital and underwent surgery to have a tumor removed. During the procedure, she was also given a hysterectomy without her knowledge or consent. The incident was one of several key events in Hamer’s life that inspired her to become a civil rights activist. It was also Hamer herself who coined the term Mississippi appendectomy when she later publicly discusses her forced sterilization.

The forced sterilization of Black women in the South continued through the 1970s, but gradually became less common. This was in part because North Carolina’s eugenics program was formally ended in 1977. Another factor in the practice’s decline was the implementation of Medicaid reforms that placed greater importance on informed consent and patient autonomy. In the years after the Mississippi appendectomy fell from favor, some of the states where it was once practiced, including South Carolina, sought to compensate those surviving women who underwent the procedure earlier in life.

Bibliography

“Fannie Lou Hamer.” PBS American Experience, 2023, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedomsummer-hamer. Accessed 5 June 2023.

Ko, Lisa. “Unwanted Sterilization and Eugenics Programs in the United States.” Independent Lens, 29 Jan. 2016, www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/unwanted-sterilization-and-eugenics-programs-in-the-united-states. Accessed 5 June 2023.

Lennard, Natasha. “The Long, Disgraceful History of American Attacks on Brown and Black Women’s Reproductive Systems.” The Intercept, 17 Sept. 2020, theintercept.com/2020/09/17/forced-sterilization-ice-us-history. Accessed 5 June 2023.

Nittle, Nadra Kareem. “The U.S. Government’s Role in Sterilizing Women of Color.” ThoughtCo., 4 Feb. 2021, www.thoughtco.com/u-s-governments-role-sterilizing-women-of-color-2834600. Accessed 5 June 2023.

Pearce, Jessica. “Mississippi Appendectomies: Reliving Our Pro-Eugenics Past.” Ms., 28 Oct. 2020, msmagazine.com/2020/10/28/ice-immigration-mississippi-appendectomies-usa-eugenics-forced-coerced-sterilization. Accessed 5 June 2023.

Salas, Gabriela. “A Brief History of Sterilization Abuse in the U.S. and Its Connection to ICE Mass Hysterectomies in Georgia.” National Women’s Health Network, 2 Oct. 2020, nwhn.org/a-brief-history-of-sterilization-abuse-in-the-u-s-and-its-connection-to-ice-mass-hysterectomies-in-georgia. Accessed 5 June 2023.

Spencer, Alexa. “Remember When the U.S. Sterilized Black People? Here’s Why It Matters Today.” Sacramento Observer, 21 Feb. 2023, sacobserver.com/2023/02/remember-when-the-u-s-sterilized-black-people-heres-why-it-matters-today. Accessed 5 June 2023.

Tafesse, Kidi. “What the ‘Mississippi Appendectomy’ Says About the Regard of the State Towards the Agency of Black Women’s Bodies.” The Movement for Black Women’s Lives, 1 May 2019, 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. Accessed 5 June 2023.