1905
IQ testing
Dr. Alfred Binet and Dr. Theodore Simon developed a measuring scale of intelligence which was a scientific attempt to provide a standardized method for determining the degree of intelligence of individuals with developmental disabilities. It was created to identify children who were falling behind developmentally and required assistance. However, the scale was later adopted by American institution superintendents to segregate individuals with developmental disabilities.
Early 1900s
The eugenics movement
The eugenics movement of the early 20th century advocated “. . . the science of the improvement of the human race by better breeding.” So-called “feeble-mindedness” was thought to be hereditary and was eventually blamed for most of society’s burdens. Proponents of eugenics (many of whom were doctors) called for the sterilization of persons with developmental disabilities.
1912
Walter Fernald
“The feebleminded are a parasitic, predatory class, never capable of self-support or of managing their own affairs. The great majority ultimately become public charges in some form. They cause un-utterable sorrow at home and are a menace and danger to the community. Feebleminded women are almost invariably immoral and … usually become carriers of venereal disease or give birth to children who are as defective as themselves.”
– Walter Fernald, 1912. Fernald was superintendent of the Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children, an institution in Boston, MA.
1912
Henry Goddard publishes The Kallikak Family
Dr. Henry Goddard was the director of research at the Vineland Training School for Feeble-Minded Girls and Boys in New Jersey. In 1912 he published The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness. He traced the genealogy of the great-great-great grandfather of a woman at Vineland and found that all descendants from this man and a “feeble-minded” barmaid were delinquent, poor, and intellectually disabled. All the descendants of this man and his non-disabled wife were prosperous, upstanding citizens. Based on dubious research, Goddard concluded that intellectual disability was hereditary, and every effort should be undertaken to keep the ‘feeble-minded’ from procreating. Other institution directors published similar “research” in support of eugenics.
1917
Army uses IQ test
Dr. Goddard and his associates use a version of the Binet test on nearly two million army recruits and concluded that 45% were feeble-minded. These results call into question the validity of the test. However, Goddard was successful in promoting the IQ test in public schools and for immigrants arriving at Ellis Island.
1920s
Self-sufficiency
As institutions grew larger, superintendents became more concerned with how economical they could make their facilities. Many attempted to become economically self-sufficient by running their own farms, laundries, and power plants. Inmates with mild disabilities were often used as free labor.
1927
Buck v. Bell
Carrie Buck became pregnant after being raped by her foster mother’s nephew. Carrie’s birth mother had been committed to the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded after being accused of “immorality.” Carrie was also sentenced to this institution, likely to save her foster family any embarrassment. The State decided to sterilize Carrie, arguing that imbecility, epilepsy, and feeblemindedness are hereditary, and that inmates should be prevented from passing these defects to the next generation. Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes proclaimed, “It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. … Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”
The US Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell set a legal precedent that states may sterilize inmates of public institutions.
1927
Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Buck v. Bell
1933
Nazis murder 200,000 people with disabilities
The Kallikak Family is reprinted in Germany in 1933. The Nazis forcibly sterilize 400,000 and murder more than 200,000 people with disabilities.
1948
“Euthanasia through neglect”
Living conditions for people with developmental disabilities grow worse during an economic depression and world war. In 1948, Albert Deutsch wrote Shame of the States, a photographic expose of Letchworth Village, an institution in New York. Deutsch referred to this system of care as “euthanasia through neglect.”
1940s – 1960s
Institution enrollment increases
Between 1946 and 1967, the number of persons with disabilities in public institutions increases from 116,828 to 193,188, a rate of increase nearly twice that of the general population. Institutions begin admitting younger children with more severe disabilities.
1950
The Association for Retarded Children
Following WWII, parent-led advocacy groups began to organize, advocating for the rights and inclusion of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. First called the National Association of Parents and Friends of Retarded Children, the name changed to the Association for Retarded Children, then the Association for Retarded Citizens, and is now called The Arc.
Gunnar Dybwad
“Spontaneously, we had a worldwide revolution without really knowing what started it. They all said at the same time ‘enough is enough’. And yet there was not one leader, not one movie or book, not one happening that affected everyone. In various countries, it started in various ways.”
Gunnar Dybward served as executive director of the national Assocation for Retarded Children form 1957-63.
1950s
Sheltered workshops and day activity centers
Parents and activists create sheltered workshops and day activity centers as an alternative to institutions or staying at home all day.
