Birth Control Battles: How Race and Class Divided American Religion

301 Pages·2019·5.272 MB·English

by  Melissa J. Wilde

Birth Control Battles
how race and class divided
american religion
Melissa J. Wilde
university of california press
Birth Control Battles

Birth Control Battles
how race and class divided
american religion
Melissa J. Wilde
university of california press
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2020 by Melissa J. Wilde
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wilde, Melissa J., 1974- author.
Title: Birth control battles : how race and class divided American religion
/ Melissa J. Wilde.
Description: Oakland, California : The University of California Press,
[2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2019023215 (print) | lccn 2019023216 (ebook) |
isbn 9780520303201 (cloth) | isbn 9780520303218 (paperback) |
isbn 9780520972681 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Birth control—Religious aspects—History. | Birth
control—United States—History. | Social classes—United States. |
Eugenics—United States—History. | Race relations—Religious aspects.
Classification: lcc hq766.5.u5 w534 2020 (print) | lcc hq766.5.u5
(ebook) | ddc 261.8/36—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019023215
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019023216
Manufactured in the United States of America
28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Illustrations and Tables vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
part i from abolition to eugenics
1. American Religious Activism in the Twentieth Century 33
2. Mobilizing America’s Religious Elite in the Service
of Eugenics 57
part ii liberalization, 1929–1931
3. The Early Liberalizers: “The Church Has a Responsibility
for the Improvement of the Human Stock” 77
4. The Supporters: “God Needed the White Anglo-Saxon
Race” 105
5. The Critics: “Atlanta Does Not Believe in Race Suicide” 129
6. The Silent Groups: “Let the Christian Get Away from
Heredity” 154
part iii from legality to the pill, 1935–1965
7. The Religious Promoters of Contraception:
Remaining Focused on Other People’s Fertility 173
8. The Forgotten Half: America’s Reluctant Contraceptive
Converts 198
Conclusion: A Century Later 215
Notes 221
References 251
Index 279
Methodological appendix is available on the UC Press website at
www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520303218/birth-control-battles.
Illustrations and Tables
figures
1. “Roman Catholics, Jews, and Protestants in New York City,” 1909 63
maps
1. Roman Catholics as a percentage of all American religious
adherents, 1926 71
2. Early liberalizers 78
3. Unofficial supporters 106
4. Critics (excluding Roman Catholics) 142
5. Silent groups 155
tables
1. Sample of religious denominations 8
2. Demographics of American religious denominations circa 1926 14
viii illustrations and tables
3. Key words searched 20
4. Stances on birth control by belief in race suicide and the social gospel 27
5. Early religious activism in the American religious field 36
6. Religious identity and membership in the American religious
field circa 1930 50
7. Measures of feminism among American religious groups circa 1930 60
8. Support for eugenics in the American religious field circa 1930 68
9. American religious denominations then and now 178