Library Catalog

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

Overbeck, Anne

At the Heart of It All? : Discourses on the Reproductive Rights of African American Women in the 20th Century / Anne Overbeck. - 1 online resource (XV, 246 p.) - Family Values and Social Change , 4 2366-9462 ; .

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 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 -- 2. “Tomorrow’s Families” – Modernization Discourses and the Changing View on African American Women -- 3. “The Zero Population Growth Game” – Debating Black Motherhood in the Age of Population Control -- 4. “A National Effort [to Establish] a Stable Negro Family Structure” – Poverty, Illegitimacy, and Black Motherhood in the 1960s -- 5. In Sickness and in Health – Discussing Reproductive Rights in the Age of Crack, AIDS, and Women’s Health -- Conclusion and Outlook -- Bibliography -- Index

restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

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.




Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.


In English.

9783110379778 9783110399547 9783110399431

10.1515/9783110399431 doi

2018958023


African American families--History--20th century.
African American mothers--History--20th century.
Reproductive rights--History--United States--20th century.
HISTORY / United States / 20th Century.

HQ766 / .O94 2019