On their own terms African Americans and birth control in the rural south, 1900-1942 /

by Lawrence, Sarah Raphael.

This dissertation challenges 20th century U.S. birth control historiography by incorporating rural African Americans into the narrative. Beyond the important project of recovering citizens too often cast as passive players in their reproductive destinies, this work enhances understanding of how rural African Americans helped shape social and political reform in the decades before World War II. Localized interactions between birth control advocates and their rural “clients” illuminate tensions of class, race, region and gender in the context of national crisis and social rehabilitation. I explore how rural African Americans conceived notions of uplift, respectability, citizenship, progress, and modernization. Specifically, I look at how health ideologies relying on mutualism and and female health authority influenced birth control educational strategies that differed from urban-based organizational models highlighting gender and class hierarchy and medical expertise. iv