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A “Semiofficial” Program: New Deal Politics and the Discourse of Birth Control in California, 1939–1942
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 December 2017
Abstract:
During the later years of the Great Depression, birth control advocates in the Birth Control Federation of America (BCFA) developed a program to distribute birth control among California’s migrant workers. In order to reach the migrants, these advocates reached out to the Farm Security Administration (FSA), a New Deal agency that was establishing its own programs to “rehabilitate” migrant families. Though the top levels of the FSA were wary of becoming publicly involved with the birth control movement, they lent their tacit support to the program. The resulting “semiofficial” program to bring birth control to California’s poor relied heavily on the support of local administrators and professionals. This article examines the on-the-ground operations of this project; in doing so, it challenges the traditional top-down narrative of the New Deal and explores how the forging of alliances at the local level reshaped the political landscape.
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- Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2017
Footnotes
I would like to thank my advisers, Professor Sarah Igo and Professor Gary Gerstle, for their feedback on drafts. A travel grant from the Sophia Smith Collection made the research for this article possible, and the help of the staff there proved invaluable. Finally, the comments from the anonymous reviewers for JPH greatly improved the quality of this article.
References
NOTES
1. Mildred Delp, “Weekly Narrative from California Migratory Labor Camps,” 27 February 1939. Sophia Smith Collection, Planned Parenthood Federation of America Records, 1918–74, Smith College (hereafter PPFA I), Box 45, Folder 4.
2. James Gregory estimates that three hundred thousand migrants from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and Missouri came to California during this period. Gregory, James, The American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California (Oxford, 1989), 9.Google Scholar
3. Croutch, Albert, Housing Migratory Agricultural Workers in California, 1913–1948 (San Francisco, 1975)Google Scholar. There were also a number of temporary, mobile camps, whose number varied with the seasons. Delp cites twenty-five camps, but it is unclear where she gets this number, and it most likely is an estimate, since the number of camps was constantly in flux. Corroborating her estimate with other sources, such as Croutch’s document, I can only confirm the presence of sixteen camps.
4. In his book Freedom from Fear, David Kennedy argues that, because the emergency of the Great Depression necessitated a speedy response, local administrators in programs such as the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) were given a large amount of latitude. More recently, Ira Katznelson’s work has probed the discriminatory implications of placing power in the hands of local administrators. Katznelson, unlike Kennedy, argues that this move to the local was deliberate, driven by Southern Democrats who feared federal intrusion. See Kennedy, David M., Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945 (New York, 2001), 104;Google Scholar Katznelson, Ira, When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold Story of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America (New York, 2005);Google Scholar Katznelson, Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time (New York, 2013).
5. Linda Gordon’s 1976 overview of the birth control movement, Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: A Social History of Birth Control (revised in 2003 as The Moral Property of Women: A History of Birth Control Politics in America) formed the foundation of the field. Gordon’s book traces the shifts in the birth control movement over the twentieth century but focuses on national organizations. While subsequent works elaborated on Gordon’s narrative, most maintained the focus on the national level. For example, James Reed’s 1978 From Private Vice to Public Virtue looks at three significant individuals who had inordinate influence on the twentieth-century birth control movement: Margaret Sanger, Robert Dickinson, and Clarence Gamble. Reed concentrated on these individuals to highlight the different themes and shifts of the movement, but his subject is limited to those who wielded national influence. In a similar vein, Carole McCann’s Birth Control Politics in the United States, 1916–1945 examines the political conflicts among the leaders of the birth control organizations. See also Gordon, Linda, The Moral Property of Women: A History of Birth Control Politics in America, 3rd ed. (Urbana, 2003)Google Scholar; Kennedy, David M., Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger (New Haven, 1970);Google Scholar Chesler, Ellen, Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America (New York, 1992);Google Scholar and Reed, James, From Private Vice to Public Virtue: The Birth Control Movement and American Society Since 1830 (New York, 1978).Google Scholar
6. Holz, Rose, The Birth Control Clinic in a Marketplace World (Rochester, N.Y., 2012), 4.Google Scholar
7. The exception to this rule is Johanna Schoen’s Choice and Coercion. Although she focuses on birth control in state public health programs, Schoen looks briefly at the FSA’s relationship to the birth control movement. Schoen, Johanna, Choice and Coercion: Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public Health and Welfare (Chapel Hill, 2005).Google Scholar
8. Hajo, Cathy Moran, Birth Control on Main Street: Organizing Clinics in the United States, 1916–1939 (Urbana, 2010), 39, 154.Google Scholar
9. Grace Naismith, “A Birth Control Pioneer Among Migrants,” Reader’s Digest, July 1943, 85, in Margaret Sanger Papers, Doe Library, University of California, Berkeley.
10. Ibid., 87.
11. “Noted Woman Honors Indio Migratory Camp,” Covered Wagon, 14 January 1939; “Miss Millie (Millie the Migrant) Delp Bids Our Camp Auf Weider Sehen,” 21 January 1939.
12. United States v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries, 86 F.2d 737 (2d Cir. 1936).
13. The Comstock Act had prohibited the mailing of “obscene matter,” including contraceptives and information about contraceptives. In U.S. v. One Package, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the Comstock Act could not prevent doctors from mailing contraceptives. While the decision did not completely overturn the Comstock Act (and state laws still continued to place constraints on birth control), the decision shifted the priorities of the movement. Cathy Moran Hajo argues that the impact of One Package on the birth control movement was mostly symbolic. In the 1920s and 1930s, birth control clinics had thrived, very rarely facing prosecution under the Comstock Act. However, the presence of the act “left a shadow over almost every aspect of a clinic’s work.” Cathy Moran Hajo, Birth Control on Main Street: Organizing Clinics in the United States, 1916–1939 (Urbana, 2010), 157.
14. Ibid., 122.
15. Engelman, Peter, A History of the Birth Control Movement in America (Santa Barbara, 2011), 173.Google Scholar
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23. Ibid., 202.
24. For more on Mexican migrant workers in California in the 1930s, see Guerin-Gonzales, Camille, Mexican Workers and American Dreams: Immigration, Repatriation, and California Farm Labor, 1900–1939 (New Brunswick, 1994).Google Scholar
25. Stein, “A New Deal Experiment with Guided Democracy,” 134.
26. John Beecher, “The Migratory Labor Problem in California,” February 1940, 14. BANC MSS 77/111c., Box 1. Irving Wood Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
27. One of the notable examples was Fred Ross, who trained in social work before he was hired by the FSA as camp manager for the Arvin camp. After leaving the FSA, Ross became involved in community organizing and worked with Saul Alinsky organizing Mexican American workers in California. He went on to train Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in community-organizing techniques in the 1950s. For more on Fred Ross’ career as a community organizer, see Chavez, Cesar, Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa (Minneapolis, 1975).Google Scholar
28. Stein, “A New Deal Experiment with Guided Democracy,” 137.
29. Grey, New Deal Medicine, 4.
30. Hazel Moore, “Resettlement Project, Interview with Mr. Mitchell,” 18 March 1937. Sophia Smith Collection, PPFA I, Box 57, Folder 3.
31. Grey, New Deal Medicine, 3.
32. Hazel Moore, “Interviews,” 21–23 January 1937. Sophia Smith Collection, PPFA I, Box 57, Folder 3.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. Mildred Delp, “My Day,” 17 October 1940. Sophia Smith Collection, PPFA I, Smith College, Box 45, Folder 4.
36. Melcher, Mary S., Pregnancy, Motherhood, and Choice in Twentieth-Century Arizona (Tucson, 2012), 81.Google Scholar
37. Moore, “Resettlement Project, Interview with Mr. Mitchell.”
38. W. C. Morehead, “Outline of Talk Given to FSA Personnel in Special Rural Projects Program,” 19 September 1940. 1.
39. Ibid.
40. Mildred Delp, “Special Rural Project in California and Arizona,” 20 March 1939. Sophia Smith Collection, PPFA I, Box 45, Folder 3.
41. Ibid.
42. Irving Wood, “Confidential: Instructions to Camp Managers,” 1 August 1935, 1. BANC MSS 77/111c., Box 1. Irving Wood Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
43. The Weedpatch Cultivator, 28 April 1939. Doe Library, University of California, Berkeley.
44. Mildred Delp, “Weekly Narrative from California Migratory Camps,” 7 June 1939. Sophia Smith Collection, PPFA I, Box 45, Folder 4.
45. Delp, “My Day, 30 October 1940.”
46. Mildred Delp, “Baby-Spacing Report on California and Arizona (inclusive),” March–August 1940. Sophia Smith Collection, PPFA I, Box 45, Folder 3.
47. Ibid.
48. Ibid. The contemporary medical community largely regarded the diaphragm as the most effective form of birth control. However, diaphragms often required fittings by doctors, who were generally unavailable to poor rural women. Furthermore, using a diaphragm required women to have access to privacy and sanitary facilities that many rural women did not have. Thus, the BCFA sponsored research into different methods of birth control in order to find alternatives to the diaphragm. By the end of the decade, one of these alternatives—the sponge and foam powder—became popular. Sponges had been used as birth control before, but interest in their use revived when Dr. Clarence Gamble promoted a spermicidal powder that turned to foam when it was placed on the sponge and inserted into the vagina. According to Gamble, the central advantage of foam powder lay in the ease of its distribution and use. Foam powder, though, could also be controversial. It was still new, and tests for its safety and efficacy were incomplete. Many birth control advocates were convinced that the diaphragm was still a superior form of birth control, and they felt uncomfortable recommending an inferior method to rural women. For more on the controversy surrounding foam powder, see Schoen, Johanna, “Teaching Birth Control on Tobacco Road and Mill Valley Alley: Race, Class, and Birth Control in Public Health,” in Silent Victories: The History and Practice of Public Health in Twentieth-Century America, ed. Ward, John W. and Warren, Christian (Oxford, 2007), 290.Google Scholar
49. Grey, New Deal Medicine, 94.
50. Ibid.
51. Delp, “Baby-Spacing Report on California and Arizona (inclusive).”
52. Delp, “My Day,” 8 August 1940.
53. Delp, “Baby-Spacing Report on California and Arizona (inclusive).”
54. W. C. Morehead, “Rural Projects Program Outline Prepared at the Request of Mrs. Kathrine [sic] Trent,” October 1940. Sophia Smith Collection, PPFA I, Box 45, Folder 3.
55. W. C. Morehead, “Summary of B.C. Program in Farm Security Administration, Region XII,” 4 October 1938. Sophia Smith Collection, PPFA I, Box 45, Folder 3.
56. Mildred Delp, “Listing of Several Interviews,” 1 May 1939. Sophia Smith Collection, PPFA I, Box 45, Folder 4.
57. Ibid., 16 May 1939.
58. Delp, “My Day,” 12 March 1940.
59. Katherine Trent, “Narrative Report,” 19 April–6 May 1941. Sophia Smith Collection, PPFA I, Box 45, Folder 6.
60. Delp, “My Day,” 21 July 1941.
61. Delp, “My Day,” 20–25 April 1942. For more on the War Relocation Authority, see Mae Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (Princeton, 2004), 178–79. Ngai claims that many WRA administrators were New Dealers who worked in the Department of Agriculture, and they carried their ethos of rehabilitation and assimilation with them to their work at the internment camps.
62. Moore, “Resettlement Project, Interview with Mr. Mitchell,” 18 March 1937.
63. Fred Mott, “Letter to Kenneth Rose,” 19 August 1942. Sophia Smith Collection, PPFA I, Box 57, Folder 3.
64. Mildred Delp, “Letter to Margaret Sanger,” 28 June 1943. Margaret Sanger Papers, Doe Library, University of California, Berkeley.
65. Mildred Delp, “Planned Parenthood Progress Report,” 15 January–15 June 1944. Sophia Smith Collection, PPFA I, Box 45, Folder 7.