Killing the Black Body or Ellis Islands Famous Immigrants

Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty

Author: Dorothy Roberts

In Killing the Black Body, Dorothy Roberts gives a powerful and authoritative account of the on-going assault - both figurative and literal - waged by the American government and our society on the reproductive rights of Black women. From an intersection of charged vectors (race, gender, motherhood, abortion, welfare, adoption, and the law), Roberts addresses in her impassioned book such issues as: the notion of prenatal property imposed upon slave women by white masters; the unsavory association between birth control champion Margaret Sanger and the eugenics movement of the 1920s; the coercive sterilization of Black women (many of whom were unaware that they had undergone the procedure) under government welfare programs as late as the 1970s; the race and class implications of distributing risky, long-acting contraceptives, such as Norplant, through Medicaid; the rendering of reproduction as a crime of prosecuting women who expose their fetuses to drugs; the controversy over transracial adoption; the welfare debate (who should pay for reproduction?); and the promotion of the new birth technology (in vitro fertilization and egg donation) to serve infertile white couples.

Library Journal

From forced breeding and involuntary sterilization to the use of invasive methods of birth control (Norplant and Depo-Provera) and more recently welfare reform legislation, Rutgers law professor Roberts traces the history of social policies used by the dominant power structure to control black women's reproductive freedom. Her well-documented work convincingly reveals why black people, and women in particular, have reason to mistrust the medical establishment and government programs, especially those related to family planning. Roberts argues for an expanded concept of liberty that will "facilitate the processes of choice and self-determination" as well as protect individuals against government coercion. -- Faye Powell, Portland State University Library, Oregon

Library Journal

From forced breeding and involuntary sterilization to the use of invasive methods of birth control (Norplant and Depo-Provera) and more recently welfare reform legislation, Rutgers law professor Roberts traces the history of social policies used by the dominant power structure to control black women's reproductive freedom. Her well-documented work convincingly reveals why black people, and women in particular, have reason to mistrust the medical establishment and government programs, especially those related to family planning. Roberts argues for an expanded concept of liberty that will "facilitate the processes of choice and self-determination" as well as protect individuals against government coercion. -- Faye Powell, Portland State University Library, Oregon

Kirkus Reviews

Roberts's exploration of the history of African-American women and reproductive rights is brilliant, controversial, and profoundly valuable. The author, a professor of law (Rutgers University), brings forth a view of black women wholly ignored by mainstream America. Beginning with slavery and moving to the present day, she argues that white America has perpetuated a legacy of pathological social violence against black women and their reproductive capabilities. Female slaves, Roberts asserts, were often bought with the express purpose of using them as breeders; white males profited by raping black women and selling their children. Later, in the first half of the 20th century, the eugenics movement turned contraception from a tool of women's liberation into a tool of control to cut birth rates among southern blacks, and as late as the 1970s black women were routinely sterilized by hysterectomies that were not medically necessary. More recently, poor black women living in urban areas have been forced by courts, doctors, and health care organizations to be implanted with the Norplant birth-control device; doctors frequently refuse to remove it on request. Roberts's arguments are especially convincing because they are so well researched and thoroughly dissected. Drawn from documented cases, African-American theorists, and media reports, Roberts's knowledge of her subject is total. Instead of painting black women as passive victims of this reproductive racism, she represents them through the image offered by a former slave, Anna Julia Cooper, who characterizes the black woman fighting to protect the bodies of her daughters as "an entrapped tigress." Roberts outlines an agenda for change in thefinal chapter, positioning the book as an important stepping-stone toward transforming the way black women and their children are treated in America."The denial of Black reproductive autonomy serves the interests of white supremacy," Roberts states, and she demands her reader rethink the relationship between race and reproduction.

Table of Contents:

	Acknowledgments
	Introduction	3
Ch. 1	Reproduction in Bondage	22
Ch. 2	The Dark Side of Birth Control	56
Ch. 3	From Norplant to the Contraceptive Vaccine: The New Frontier of Population Control	104
Ch. 4	Making Reproduction a Crime	150
Ch. 5	The Welfare Debate: Who Pays for Procreation?	202
Ch. 6	Race and the New Reproduction	246
Ch. 7	The Meaning of Liberty	294
	Notes	313
	Index	358

Books about: Organisations

Ellis Island's Famous Immigrants (Images of America Series)

Author: Barry Moreno

Since 1776, millions of immigrants have landed at America's shores. To this day, their practical contributions are still felt in every field of endeavor, including agriculture, industry, and the service trades. But within the great immigrant waves there also came plucky and talented individualists, artists, and dreamers. Many of these exceptional folk went on to win worldly renown, and their names live on in history. Ellis Island's Famous Immigrants tells the story of some of the best known of these legendary characters and highlights their actual immigration experience at Ellis Island. Celebrities featured within its pages include such entrepreneurs as Max Factor, Charles Atlas, and "Chef Boyardee"; Hollywood icons Pola Negri, Bela Lugosi, and Bob Hope; spiritual figures Father Flanagan and Krishnamurti; authors Isaac Asimov and Kahlil Gibran; painters Arshile Gorky and Max Ernst; and sports figures Knute Rockne and Johnny Weissmuller.