Learning Activity, Margaret Sanger Assignment
Michelle Monclova
College of Arts and Sciences, Liberty University
CSTU220(B01) The African American Experience Summer Term 2024
Dr. Diane Wawrejko
June 11, 2024
Margaret Louise Higgins was born on September 14, 1879, in Corning, New York to
Michael Hennessey Higgins, an Irish-born stonemason with iconoclastic ideas, and Anne Purcell
Higgins, a devoutly Catholic Irish American. When Anne Higgins died from tuberculosis at the
age of fifty, Margaret, the sixth of eleven children, pointed to her mother’s frequent pregnancy as
the underlying cause of her premature death. Margaret Higgins looked to escape what she
viewed as a grim class and family heritage. (“Biographical Sketch - The Margaret Sanger Papers
Project”)
With the help of her older sisters, she attended Claverack College and Hudson River
Institute in 1896 and then entered the nursing program at White Plains Hospital in 1900. In 1902,
just months before completing the program, she met and married architect William Sanger.
Margaret Sanger and her husband had three children and the family settled in Hastings, a
Westchester County suburb of New York City. (“Biographical Sketch - The Margaret Sanger
Papers Project”)
After a brief teaching career, she practiced obstetrical nursing on the Lower East Side of
New York City, where she saw the relationships between poverty, uncontrolled fertility, high
rates of infant and maternal mortality, and deaths from botched illegal abortions. These
observations made Sanger a feminist who believed in every woman’s right to avoid unwanted
pregnancies, and she devoted herself to removing the legal barriers to publicizing the facts
about contraception,
Shocked by the inability of most women to obtain correct and effective birth control,
which she believed was fundamental to securing freedom and independence for workers, Sanger
began challenging the 1873 federal Comstock law and the various “little Comstock” state laws
that banned the dissemination of contraceptive information. In March 1914, Sanger published the
first issue of The Woman Rebel, a radical feminist monthly that advocated militant feminism,
including the right to practice birth control.
Margaret Sanger, the founder of the Birth Control League (which later became Planned
Parenthood), held controversial views on religion, race, and eugenics. Sanger believed in
eugenics which was the study of or belief in the possibility of improving people by selective
breeding to promote desirable traits. She advocated for birth control as a mean to control
population growth and improve the genetic quality of the population.
According to article entitled, “Margaret Sanger’s extreme brane of eugenics.,” Sanger
called for the sterilization of those with mental and physical disabilities, including “morons,
mental defectives, epileptic people (Conley,2020). Sanger ideas about eugenics were intertwined
with her views on race as she believed in the superiority of certain races and promoted the idea
of controlling reproduction to limit the growth of populations, which she deems undesirable. For
example, at least 70.000 people in the United States were forcibly sterilized under the laws
promoted by Sanger and her associates. Far more, especially women prisoners and woman on
welfare, were surreptitiously sterilized. (Conley, 2020)
One of Sanger’s most cherished initiatives was the Negro Project, which targeted Black
neighborhoods for birth control programs and recruited African American leaders to persuade
minority populations of the value of contraception and sterilization. The Negro Project,
instigated in 1939 by Margaret Sanger, was one of the first major undertakings of the new Birth
Control Federation of America (BCFA), the product of a merger between the American Birth
Control League and Sanger's Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau, and one of the more
controversial campaigns of the birth control movement. (Newsletter #28, 2001)
Developed by white birth control reformers, who consulted with African-Americans for
help in promoting the project only well after its inception, the Negro Project and associated
campaigns were, nevertheless, widely supported by such black leaders as Mary McLeod
Bethune, W. E. B. DuBois, and Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Influenced strongly by both the
eugenics movement and the progressive welfare programs of the New Deal era, the Negro
Project was, from the start, largely indifferent to the needs of the black community and
constructed in terms and with perceptions that today smack of racism. (Newsletter #28, 2001)
“We don’t want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the
African American minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of
their more rebellious members.” (Conley, 2020)
Sanger’s eugenic beliefs had a significant impact on the African American experience.,
Christianity in America, and America’s historical legacy. Sanger’s association with eugenics and
her view on race have led to criticism of her as a supporter of ideas that have been linked to
racist ideologies. Her advocacy for birth control and eugenics has been seen as problematic
within the African American community, as it has been argued that her motives were racially
motivated and aimed at limited the growth of minority populations.
In conclusion, Margaret Sanger roles in promoting birth control and her association with
eugenics have left a complex and controversial imprint. While she played a significant role in
advancing woman’s reproductive rights and access to contraception, her views on eugenics have
been widely criticized and have tarnished her legacy in the eyes of many. Sanger’s ideas continue
to spark debates and discussions about the intersections of race religion and reproductive rights
in American society. This has led to ongoing debates about her legacy and the role of
organizations like Planned Parenthood.in promoting reproductive rights. Sanger ideas have also
raised question about the intersection of religion, race, and social justice in America’s historical
context, highlighting the complexities of addressing issues related to reproductive rights and
social equality.
Reference:
1. New York University. “(“Biographical Sketch - The Margaret Sanger Papers Project”)
https://sanger.hosting.nyu.edu/aboutms/msbio/
2, Conley, John, J. (28 July 2020) “ Margaret Sangers extreme brand of eugenics,”
https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/07/28/margaret-sangers-extreme-
brand-eugenics?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqK_9-f7s7gIVzJ-
zCh26Eg7fEAMYAiAAEgIvifD_BwE
3. Newsletter #28 (Fall 2001) “Birth Control or Race Control? Sanger and the Negro
Project. https://sanger.hosting.nyu.edu/articles/bc_or_race_control/
