At the Heart of It All?: Discourses on the Reproductive Rights of African American Women in the 20th Century

Anne Overbeck

Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2019

At the Heart of It All?

Discourses on the Reproductive Rights of African American Women in the 20th Century

Anne Overbeck

Volume 4 in the series Family Values and Social Change

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110399431

Overview
Contents

About this book

The structure of the African American family has been a recurring theme in American discourse on the African American community. The role of African American mothers especially has been the cause of heated debates since the time of Reconstruction in the 19th century. The discourse, which often saw the African American family as something that needed fi xing, also put the issue of women’s reproductive rights on the political agenda. Taking a long-term perspective from the 1920s to the early 1990s, Anne Overbeck aims to show how normative notions of the American family infl uenced the perspective on the African American family, especially African American women. The book follows the negotiations on African American women’s reproductive rights within the context of eugenics, modernization theory, overpopulation, and the War on Drugs. Thereby it sets out to trace both continuities and changes in the discourse on the reproductive rights of African American women that still infl uence our perspective on the African American family today.

Author information

Anne Overbeck, Institute of Educational Sciences, University of Münster

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
List of Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	XIII
List of Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	XV
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. “After All, a Woman is Biologically a Child Factory” – Eugenics and the Debate on Family Planning for African Americans in the 1920s and Early 1930s Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
2. “Tomorrow’s Families” – Modernization Discourses and the Changing View on African American Women Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
3. “The Zero Population Growth Game” – Debating Black Motherhood in the Age of Population Control Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
4. “A National Effort [to Establish] a Stable Negro Family Structure” – Poverty, Illegitimacy, and Black Motherhood in the 1960s Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
5. In Sickness and in Health – Discussing Reproductive Rights in the Age of Crack, AIDS, and Women’s Health Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
Conclusion and Outlook Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
Audience: Historiker, Soziologen, Amerikanisten
Pages
- Front matter: 15
- Main content: 246
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 1

eBook

Published: January 29, 2019
ISBN: 9783110399431

Hardcover

Published: January 29, 2019
ISBN: 9783110379778