Buck v Bell

Title

Buck v Bell

Description

Collection Items

Explanation of Symbols used in Mendelian Chart
Because characteristics such as feeble-mindedness and sexual immorality were thought to be hereditary, the Virginia Colony often used pedigrees to determine whether a person was a good candidate for sterilization.

Buildings at the Virginia Colony for the Epileptic and Feebleminded
These buildings at the Virginia Colony for the Epileptic and Feebleminded were the site of Carrie Buck's 1927 sterilization. Afterward, she was released from the colony. She married twice, and family and friends later denied the accuracy of her…

Aubrey E. Strode, Author of Virginia's Sterilization Law
Aubrey E. Strode drafted the 1924 sterilization law and acted as legal counsel to the Board of Directors of the Virginia State Colony. He was paid $750 to represent the Board in each of the appeals of Carrie Buck's case.

Albert S. Priddy, Superintendent of the State Colony for Epileptics and the Feebleminded
Dr. A.S. Priddy, the superintendent of the Virginia Colony, assigned Irving Whitehead, a former member of the colony's board, to be Carrie Buck's defense lawyer. Priddy died before the appeals in the case were heard, and John Bell succeeded him.

Carrie Buck and Emma Buck, 1924
Carrie Elizabeth Buck was born in Charlottesville in 1906 and placed with a foster family at age three. Her foster parents took her out of school after sixth grade to perform housework for them. In 1923 she became pregnant after her foster parents'…

Carrie's baby (Vivian), Charlottesville, with Mrs. John Dobbs, 1924
Mrs. John Dobbs was the foster mother of Vivian Buck, Carrie's daughter. To demonstrate that the infant was an imbecile, like her mother and grandmother, Mrs. Dobbs waved a coin in front of Vivian's face and determined that the infant could not…
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