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Footnotes 1107
facts of life. . . . No wonder one sometimes hears a colored woman say ‘it’s a sin to
bring a black child into the world.’. . . If anyone should doubt the desire on the part
of Negro women and men to limit their families, it is only necessary to note the large
scale of ‘preventive devices’ sold in every drug store in the various Black Belts, and the
great number of abortions performed by medical men and quacks.” (“Quantity or
Quality,” The Birth Control Review^ of, cit,y pp. 165-166.)
Further indirect evidence of the desire for family limitation among Negroes can be
presented. “There is reason to believe ... if one is willing to accept the almost universal
testimony of Negro physicians, that . . . birth control of a sort is being attempted on a
wide scale among the lower classes of Negroes. . . . Negro women in formidable num-
bers, without the advantage of contraceptive information, seek relief through abortions
performed under highly dangerous conditions. . . .” (Elmer A. Carter, “Eugenics for
the Negro,” The Birth Control Reviewy of. cit.y p. 169.)
Raymond Pearl’s study, however, indicates that Negro women practice contraception
less than do white women. (See The Natural History of Pofulation [1939], pp. 193-
194, and table, p. 231.)
In the only recent study showing quantitative trends in intermarriage, Wirth and
Goldhamer state that intermarriage in Boston and New York State (outside of New
York City) has been decreasing, but the fact that there are now a larger proportion of
Negroes in the North where intermarriage is not illegal may have counterbalanced this
trend. (Of. cit.y manuscript, pages 37-50.) Recent studies of Southern communities
suggest that concubinage hardly exists in the present-day South in the form which it
took before the Civil War, or at least if it exists, is more effectively concealed. (See
Dollard, of. cit.y pp. 141-142; Hortense Powdermaker, After Freedom [1939], pp.
195-196.)
. . In recent years a new type of contact between the two races has been develop-
ing in Northern cities. White collar workers of the two races have been associating more
freely and are having, of course, sex relations. Contraceptives are generally used in such
contacts.” (Communication from E. Franklin Frazier, July i, 1942.)
Wirth and Goldhamer discuss all these types of passing. (Of. cit.y manuscript
pages 72-99.)
One of the reasons often overlooked for the ability to pass of persons who still
have large proportions of Negro blood is the fact that not all Africans had the black
color of the “true Negro.” (See Day, of. cit.y pp. lo-il.)
Day seems to be the only one who has made an approach to the use of the first
method—^and that only incidentally in the course of following up other interests. (Sec
Day, Of. cit.y p. 1 1.) Her samples of the families were known to have dififering amounts
of Negro blood in them, but were not intended to be representative of the general
Negro population. Out of her 346 families, 35 included one or more individuals
who had completely lost their racial identity. Her average family contained about 7.3
persons over 14 years of age, living or dead, so her statement would allow one to
estimate that, at the very minimum, 15 out of every 1,000 Negroes passed. This
conclusion is worthless, however, in view of the fact that Mrs. Day’s sample was not,
and was not intended to be, representative since her families were selected as containing
some white blood even though individual members in them were full-blooded Negroes.
The second method was employed by Hart—also in following up another interest.
(Hornell Hart, Selective Migration as a Factor in Child Welfare in the United Statesy
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