Mississippi Appendectomy refers to the involuntary and forced sterilization of Black Women in the southern United States from the 1920’s through the 1980’s. This procedure was bolstered by the practice of Eugenics whereby scientists and political leaders enacted state control through sterilization laws to govern the population growth of Black people not unlike that which occurred on the slave plantations.

The notion that reproduction was restricted to candidates deemed fit and black women were only 12% of the population yet 64% of those sterilized demonstrates the states’ antipathy of Black proliferation.

The celebrated feminist and women’s rights activist Margaret Sanger was a prominent eugenicist and proponent of arresting the growth of the Black population. As an advocate of birth control, especially for Black women, her intentions towards Blacks have been described as genocidal.

In 1964, during her testimony at the Democratic National Convention, Fannie Lou Hamer detailed her experience of being forcibly sterilized while in the hospital to have a non-cancerous tumor removed. Her remarks were so striking that President Lyndon B. Johnson interrupted her speech, calling a press conference to distract the public away from her testimony.

Sadly forced sterilizations are not transgressions of the past. Women continue to be impacted, specifically while in detention centers, not unlike those who were institutionalized in the 1930’s through 1980’s.

To learn more about the modern day forced sterilization of women imprisoned in California and ICE detention facilities in Georgia, visit these links:

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/22/belly_of_the_beast_documentary

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/22/new_film_links_forced_sterilization_in

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