Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and <I>Buck v. Bell<I> by Paul A. Lombardo

Author:Paul A. Lombardo [Lombardo, Paul A.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2008-10-06T04:00:00+00:00

Estabrook’s Demise

Arthur Estabrook’s expert testimony provided some of the most important evidence in the 1924 Buck trial. Unlike any other witness, Estabrook had actually seen the “three generations” whose problematic heredity became the foundation of the Supreme Court opinion. In court, Estabrook condemned Carrie Buck as a “socially inadequate” person who needed supervision to oversee her “moral welfare.” His own career after Buck represents a fascinating counterpoint to the pose he struck in the courtroom.

Immediately following the Buck trial, Estabrook submitted his Virginia travel expenses to Charles Davenport at the ERO. Davenport chided him for attempting to inflate his expense account, writing, “I am just as surprised to find you at Amherst on a sterilization test case as the auditor would be.” Davenport eventually approved the travel payment.67

Estabrook then prepared an invoice for Aubrey Strode including fees as an expert witness and travel expenses; he was paid $112.08.68 It is no small irony that the man who described Carrie Buck’s defective ethical sense as an inherited condition double-billed his employer and the state of Virginia for the cost of appearing at the Buck trial.69 And Estabrook, who described Carrie Buck as a “moral degenerate,” had a questionable sexual history himself.

It was Estabrook’s habit to employ young women from nearby colleges to assist in fieldwork, and he corresponded with them regularly. His notebooks included snapshots taken in the field, often showing the dapper scientist surrounded by his smiling helpers. Aubrey Strode’s wife Louise Hubbard filled the role of assistant to Estabrook for a while, and her letters make it clear that his relationships with young women were not hampered by rigid professional formality.

After one visit by Estabrook, young Miss Hubbard complained that she was not feeling well and scolded herself and another young woman for allowing “gentlemen to carouse around in our room so late!” Estabrook himself was one of those “gentlemen.” She also told him that a friend had given her a quart of “the most marvelous scuppernong wine” for medicinal purposes. While that must have seemed a humorous admission in the Prohibition era, it could have led to much less comical conclusions for a less privileged woman, particularly one under evaluation by Estabrook for moral weaknesses.70

Ivan McDougle was Estabrook’s research colleague and coauthor of the book Mongrel Virginians.71 Research for that book, which focused on a mixed racial group, was carried out in central Virginia near Amherst. McDougle recruited students from nearby Sweet Briar College to help collect data, commenting that his latest cohort of twenty college seniors was “the finest bunch of college girls I ever saw.” McDougle’s agenda for research included “very definite plans for hard work and strenuous play—thanks to our senior bunch.”72

Estabrook shared McDougle’s captivation with the coeds, and his sexual indiscretion was the direct cause of his dismissal from the Eugenics Record Office staff. Charles Davenport had known that Estabrook struggled with “loneliness” during his long fieldwork assignments. The matter came to a head when Estabrook’s wife, having learned of an inappropriate relationship in which her husband was involved, wrote to Davenport.

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