The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett - 49

A s I was writing this book, a curious fact caught my eye. It was regarding a law passed in 1928 that made it legal to sterilize any person in Mississippi deemed an imbecile. The all-male board that decided who qualified for sterilization included in their criteria not only those who were deemed insane, idiots, imbeciles, or epileptics, but also the disabled, alcoholics, prostitutes, and sexually promiscuous women.

The mention of “promiscuous women” comes up frequently in texts from the early twentieth century. The logic seemed to be based on the assumption that if a woman was promiscuous, she was more than likely to be an imbecile—or “feebleminded,” a commonly used term at the time—and vice versa. It was believed that feeblemindedness was a hereditary trait, almost guaranteed. “Feebleminded women were held to be driven by a heedless sexuality,” writes the eminent historian Daniel J. Kevles, “the product of biologically grounded flaws in their moral character that led them to prostitution and producing illegitimate children.” 1 During this time, it was also believed that feebleminded men were “lacking in sex drive” and “not characteristically a sex offender.” The result was that the overwhelming majority of those sterilized were women. 2

To enforce Mississippi’s new sterilization law, eugenicist governor Theodore Bilbo helped devise a plan to test all schoolchildren for feeblemindedness. In his 1928 inaugural address, he stated his aim was to “assume charge of the defectives during the formative period, that is before these abnormal children have become a menace and social liability.” His intentions were clear: to move these schoolchildren to a colony where they could be candidates for sterilization.

It bears noting here that Mississippi, which suffers much criticism and often rightfully so, was the twenty-sixth state to pass a sterilization law. Once again, the state fell behind the times. The national eugenicist Henry H. Goddard, who first introduced what became the modern IQ test, tested thousands of New York City public schoolchildren for imbecility. The New York Times reported in 1913 that Goddard determined over 15,000 schoolchildren were feebleminded, recommending forced segregation and sterilization for them. Later, California devised such an aggressive plan for sterilization that Adolf Hitler invited American eugenicist Harry Laughlin, superintendent of the Eugenics Records Office, to Germany to explain the state’s technique. Laughlin could not oblige, but he sent a chart to Hitler showing how one impure imbecilic mother could taint a whole population. California’s sterilization practices became models for the Nazi regime. 3

Another federal law regarding women’s health was passed by Congress in 1918 but feels eerily relevant today. The Chamberlain-Kahn Act, also known as the American Plan, legalized and encouraged police to stop any woman on the street who looked promiscuous. Police were to detain the woman and test her for sexually transmitted diseases. For over half a century, tens of thousands of American women were seized and “forcibly examined,” historian Scott W. Stern writes. “If they misbehaved or if they failed to show ‘proper’ ladylike deference, these women could be beaten, doused with cold water, thrown in solitary confinement—or even sterilized.” According to Stern, the American Plan laws are still on the books, in some altered form, in every state in the nation. 4

As a writer, and as a human being, I believe it’s my duty to imagine what it feels like to stand in another person’s shoes. To stay sane, I put those imaginings on paper. The total number of Americans who endured forced sterilization is estimated to be seventy thousand, though I’ve read accounts that put the number in the hundreds of thousands. That’s an awful lot of shoes to stand in. After 1940, most of those sterilized were working-class women of color, including Fannie Lou Hamer, who many believe coined the heartbreaking term “Mississippi appendectomy.” It is with the utmost sincerity that I acknowledge the women who endured this shameful chapter of our nation’s history, and those who fought—and continue to fight—for women’s healthcare as a human right today.

Many people helped me with my historical research. In the case of Oxford landmarks, businesses on the square, businesses in Freedmen Town, and the jargon of the times, I admit to taking a few liberties in order to tell what I hoped to be a cohesive story. If I missed something significant, I encourage readers to share their expertise so that future generations will know the truth about our nation’s history.

Only one person can be credited for truly giving this story its wings and allowing it to fly, Julie Grau, my editor and publisher. You are a genius, a magician, and it has been a privilege to work under your guidance, Julie.

At Spiegel & Grau, I would also like to thank Cindy Spiegel, Nicole Dewey, Jessica Bonet, Amy Metsch, Jacqueline Fischetti, Lila Dubois, Jaden Urso, and Lucia Gorman. Thank you to Rodrigo Corral and Adriana Tonello for the beautiful jacket design, inspired by Richard Bravery’s design for the British edition. In production, I thank Sarah Schneider, Jeff Farr, and Beth Metrick, who are all miracle workers, also copyeditor and eagle eye Anne Horowitz. I am grateful, too, to my agent Kim Schefler, to Helen Garnons-Williams of Fig Tree, and to Susanna Lea and her team, who represented The Calamity Club around the world with such remarkable care.

Dearest thanks go to Sarah Laird for not letting me give up and for introducing me to Julie. All writers should have a friend like you, Sarah.

I would like to extend many thanks to Mr. Will Lewis of Neilson’s Department Store for the facts, maps, and fascinating memories of Oxford, and to Mayor Robyn Tannehill and Rhea Tannehill for your friendship, support, and for sharing your love for your town. I thank my daughter, Elliott June Murphy; Nick Augsberger; and Key Whitehead for making my writing days easier, also friends Tate Taylor, John Norris, Angel Roberts, Cleta Ellington, and Octavia Spencer for your support, and especially Kristie and David Nutt for providing me sanctuary when I needed it. I thank Alexandra Shelley for early edits; John Wallis for historical tax records; Charles Greenlee for his stories; Burke Stockett; Kathryn Painter; Carolanne and Monica Block; researchers Andrea Stover; Phillip Carnell; Jenny Ament; Christopher Massie; and Aaron Blanchard, who taught me how to conduct a home syphilis test; Mary Alice Welty White, the Eudora Welty Foundation, and the Eudora Welty Collection at MDAH; Caroline and the late Greg Iles; early readers Ken Kochey, Ruth Stockett, and Susan Stockett; and later reader, Clarence A. Haynes. Also, Dr. Rinsey McSwain and Victoria Everett of Ellisville State School and Edward J. Larson for his brilliant book on eugenics, Sex, Race, and Science.

In Oxford, my thanks also go to the Burns-Belfry Museum and Multicultural Center, Elli Morris of Morris Ice Co., and Mrs. Susie Marshall and Mrs. Niler Franklin for the collection of narratives of the African American community in Lafayette County included in We Cannot Walk Alone . My gratitude to the University of Mississippi Libraries, Katherine Tutor of Archives and Special Collections, and Jennifer Ford, Senior Curator of Manuscripts, who provided historical newspapers and booklets and images so that I could reconstruct the town of Oxford, Mississippi, in 1933.

And many thanks to the MacDowell Colony for my time there, which allowed me to write and commune with other writers, and for what you do for so many artists year after year.

1 Kevles, D. J. “Eugenics and Human Rights.” BMJ 319, no. 7207 (August 14, 1999): 435–38. https:// doi .org /10 .1136 /bmj .319 .7207 .435 .

2 Ryan, Patrick J. “ ‘Six Blacks from Home’: Childhood, Motherhood, and Eugenics in America.” Journal of Policy History 19, no. 3 (2007): 253–81. https:// doi .org /10 .1353 /jph .2007 .0017 .

3 Abate, Tom. “State’s Little-Known History of Shameful Science / California’s Role in Nazis’ Goal of ‘Purification.’ ” SFGate, March 10, 2003. https:// www .sfgate .com /business /article /State -s -little -known -history -of -shameful -science -2663925 .php .

Lombardo, P. A. “Eugenics: Lessons From a History Hidden in Plain Sight,” briefing to California Senate Select Committee on Genetics, State Capitol, Sacramento, CA, March 10, 2003.

4 4 Stern, Scott W. “America’s Forgotten Mass Imprisonment of Women.” History.com, June 30, 2025. https:// www .history .com /articles /chamberlain -kahn -act -std -venereal -disease -imprisonment -women .