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From Far More Different Angles: Institutions for the Mentally Retarded in the South, 1900-1940

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"FROM FAR MORE DIFFERENT ANGLES": INSTITUTIONS FOR THE MENTALLY RETARDED IN THE SOUTH, 1900-1940 By STEVEN NOLL A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1991 To Dorothy and Fred Noll, and Tillie Braun. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the five years this work has consumed my life, I have accumulated more debts than I care to imagine- I can never repay them; all I can do is acknowledge them with heartfelt thanks and hope I haven't left anyone out. The financial help provided by the University of Florida Department of History was essential, for without it, this project could not have even been started, much less completed. I would also like to thank the Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, New York and the North Caroliniana Society of Chapel Hill, North Carolina for their travel to collection grants which enabled me to conduct much of my research. My supervising committee has provided me with guidance, support, and help at every step of the process. Special thanks to Kermit Hall, my chairman, for his faith in my abilities and his knack for discovering the truly meaningful in my work. He always found time for my harried questions, even in the middle of an incredibly busy schedule. The other committee members, Robert Hatch, Michael Radelet, Bertram Wyatt-Brown, and Robert Zieger, all provided valuable intellectual advice and guidance. Michael Radelet also proved that good teaching, good research, and social 111 activism are not mutually exclusive variables. My colleagues at the University of Florida, Jeff Adler, David Chalmers, Tom Gallant, Susan Kent, Chris Morris, and Samuel Proctor, gave me valuable help, some of it unsolicited, much of it unheeded, all of it appreciated. Through the writing of this dissertation I have discovered the meaning of the community of scholars. Many individuals with little stake in my work have taken the time to read it and offer encouragement and suggestions. Thanks to Cheryll Cody, Ellen Dwyer, Gerald Grob, John Hughes, Michael Sokal, Nicole Rafter, and Todd Savitt for their efforts. Researching can be a difficult and lonely process. The help of archivists, librarians, and staff people made my life significantly easier. The librarians at the University of Florida, particularly Gary Cornwell in Government Documents, Lenny Rhine at the Health Center Library, and the staff of the P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History, saved me literally thousands of steps in running around campus. The staffs at the National Library of Medicine, University of Florida Health Center Library Annex in Jacksonville, the Rockefeller Archive Center, the Florida State Archives, the Georgia State Archives, the North Carolina State Archives, the South Carolina State Archives and Library, the Virginia State Archives and Library, the Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg, Virginia, the South Caroliniana Collection and the medical library of the University of South Carolina, the Southern Historical Collection and the North Carolina Collection at the Wilson Library, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the Alderman Library of the University of Virginia all provided advice and comfort to a weary, and often grouchy, researcher. Special thanks to Mary Barnes and Gene Williams of the Old Records Center of the North Carolina State Archives and Conley Edwards of the Virginia State Archives for their personal attention. I would also like to thank Reed and Angie Bohne, Reggie Clark, Tom and Alison Duncan, Sue Lang, Don and Lane Neisen, Miriam Reiser, and Al and Betsy Sharrett for opening their homes and their refrigerators and providing a touch of home while I was on the road. For this work, much research had to be conducted in non-research facilities, on the grounds of functioning institutions for mentally handicapped individuals. This could not have been possible without the help of staff who opened their archives and files to me. Special thanks to superintendent Max Jackson and his secretary, Agnes Stanford, of the Tacachale Community (formerly Sunland Center) in Gainesville, Florida for their encouragement of my work and their help in allowing me access to the vault files there. Similarly, the director of Caswell Center, Jim Woodall, and his assistants, Joanne Richiutti and Becky Brown, showed me the meaning of Southern hospitality on my two trips to Kinston, North Carolina. Thanks also to Helen Hester, staff librarian at the Central Virginia Training Center, Lynchburg, Virginia, and the staff at Whitten Center, Clinton, South Carolina. Other debts incurred in the writing of this dissertation have little to do with the actual production of it. Perhaps they are more important, however. Words can not express the sincere appreciation of the help supplied by Jane Landers and Rosemarijn Hofte. Their support, both intellectual and emotional, has been incalculable. Their friendship helped me handle the rough times. Their historical work also stands as an example of the kind of work I aspire to. The students, staff, faculty, and administration of Sidney Lanier School have helped pull me through the doldrums of a dissertation that never seemed to end. They continue to show me that my work has relevance and importance today. Lenny, Helene, Moe, and Jamie Rhine have once again made me see what was truly important in my life. Thanks also to Abner Doubleday and James Naismith, without whose games this dissertation would never have been finished, or would have been finished long ago. Finally to my family, my thanks are incalculable. To my parents, Dorothy and Fred Noll, your support of my intellectual endeavors, your pride in my meager accomplishments, and your amazing courage in the face of adversity have given me strength and hope. That neither of you lived to see the completion of this project does not diminish your involvement, only saddens me that you could not share my sense of fulfillment in finishing. To my wife vi Beverly, my son Jody, and my daughter Amanda, you have given me financial and emotional support, laughter, love, friendship, broken arms, and dirty diapers. Without your help, this work would never have been finished. Maybe now I can become a better husband and father. Finally, to Joel Jaskolski, you may not be able to read this but you know why. VII TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF TABLES X LIST OF FIGURES xi ABSTRACT xii I INTRODUCTION 1 Problems of Definition 5 Abbreviations 18 Notes to Chapter 1 20 II CARE AND CONTROL: THE AMBIVALENT PROGRESSIVE LEGACY 28 Notes to Chapter II 58 III MENTAL RETARDATION 1900-1940: INSTITUTIONALIZATION AND STERILIZATION 75 Notes to Chapter III 113 IV FROM NEGLECT TO CONTROL: THE OPENING OF INSTITUTIONS IN THE SOUTH 133 Notes to Chapter IV 162 V INTERNAL DYNAMICS: DEMOGRAPHICS, MENTAL LEVELS AND STAFFING IN SOUTHERN INSTITUTIONS 172 Notes to Chapter V 219 VI THE FUNCTIONS OF SOUTHERN INSTITUTIONS 231 Notes to Chapter VI 270 Vlll VII UNDER A DOUBLE BURDEN: FEEBLE- MINDED BLACKS IN THE SOUTH 284 Notes to Chapter VII 313 VIII THE PROMISE OF STERILIZATION 325 Notes to Chapter VIII 353 IX SOUTHERN INSTITUTIONS IN A WIDER WORLD 363 Notes to Chapter IX 395 X CONCLUSION 405 Notes to Chapter X 413 BIBLIOGRAPHY 415 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 473 IX 1 LIST OF TABLES Table page 2 . Idiotic Persons Enumerated by the U.S. Census 1850-1890 35 2.2 Special Classes Throughout the Nation 55 3 . Median IQ Scores of Southern Males 1917 Army Alpha Test 82 3.2 Numbers of Mental Defectives Institutionalized by Region 1937.... 100 3 . 3 Numbers of Mental Defectives Institutionalized by Southern States 1937 101 5.1 Patients in State Institutions for Mental Defectives per 100,000 Population 1923, 1940 178 5.2 Pay Scales for Superintendents, Teachers, and Attendants, Florida Farm Colony 1921-1936 188 5.3 Average Length of Residence, by Sex Caswell Training School 1914-1939 197 5.4 Places of Employment for Patients at Caswell Training School 1935 205 5.5 Schools in Southern Institutions 1938-1940 210 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 1.1 Comparison of Descriptive Terminology 8 2.1 Institutions for the Feeble-Minded in the South 59 3 . 1 Commitment Procedures of Southern States 12 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy "FROM FAR MORE DIFFERENT ANGLES": INSTITUTIONS FOR THE RETARDED IN THE SOUTH, 1900-1940 By Steven Noll August 1991 Chairman: Kermit L. Hall Major Department: History This dissertation deals with public institutions for the mentally retarded in the South from 1900 to 1940. It examines these facilities in light of broad national trends. These trends included social movements in both society-at- large and within the field of mental retardation itself. The relation between Progressivism and the desire to institutionalize retarded individuals is viewed as crucial to understanding why and when these institutions were organized. The prof essionalization of retardation services, sterilization, and the colony system of institutionalization are examined to determine if Southern institutions fit into the treatment of retarded persons nationwide. XII A composite picture of the persons served by these institutions was obtained from census records, internal reports, state records, and superintendents' correspondence. The portrait showed many high-level patients being committed from lower-class urban areas where they usually were involved in status offenses or petty crime. In the case of females, sexual activity was often an exclusive rationale for institutionalization. Low-level patients represented more of a cross section of society. They were institutionalized because of the burdens they presented to their families, not because of any social problems they caused. Black retarded persons received the lowest level of services, many being denied admission to institutions on the basis of their color.
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