“Fitter Family Contests” of the Early 20th-Century

In the early 20th century, science was trendy. Unfortunately, so was bigotry, and the eugenics movement took advantage of the scientific-sounding language of genetics to promote the idea that certain types of people (pretty much white, native-born, able-bodied, and Protestant) needed to propagate for the greater good of humanity. Enter the “Fitter Family Contests” held across rural America in the 1920s.

Held during agricultural fairs, where farmers were already familiar with the deliberate breeding of domesticated animals, these contests encouraged “normal” people to compete for levels of fitness. They were assessed not only for their physical traits, but also their temperment, personality, and IQ. In the first of these contests held at the Kansas State Fair in 1920, each competing family ended up with a grade, and the winners got medallions that quoted Psalms 16.6 in the Bible, “Yea, I have a goodly heritage”.

A eugenics display from this era is featured here. Note the caption “some people are born to be a burden on the rest.” A flashing light would draw viewers in, blinking to remind that frequently in the United States someone is born “who will never grow up mentally beyond that stage of an 8 year old boy or girl,” or that “every 50 seconds a person is committed to jail in the United States. Very few normal persons ever go to jail.”

All of this sounds so bizarre as to be comical, but the eugenics movement had terrible consequences. Forced sterilizations were part of the outcome, but the overall acceptance of bigotry had even bigger implications.