Complicating Conservation: Eugenics and Exclusion in the Movement

Two legacies

The conservation movement of the early 1900s helped create the National Park System and protect the nation's animals, plants and landscapes.

But some conservationists also embraced exclusionary ideas and policies that did incalculable harm to people.

• Madison Grant and William Kent wanted the United States to be, in Kent's words, "a white man's country." They backed immigration restrictions and racial segregation.
• Grant and others — including President Theodore Roosevelt — believed in eugenics: stopping people they considered "inferior," among them people of color and people with disabilities, from having children.

These stories are part of Park Service history, and understanding them is necessary to build a more inclusive future.

The people and places

• Madison Grant and Eugenics: a eugenicist and racist who was also a major figure in conservation.
• William Kent and Asian Exclusion: a California congressman and conservationist who fiercely opposed Asian immigration.
• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: a research center on Long Island, New York, that housed the Eugenics Record Office.
• Charles Matthias Goethe: a conservationist, founder of the Park Service's interpretive program, and a leader of the eugenics movement.
• Theodore Roosevelt and Climate Change: how to think about Roosevelt's legacy in light of climate change.

Going deeper

An article in Parks Stewardship Forum explores the links between conservation, eugenics and the national parks — and how to appreciate the parks while facing their difficult histories. It's written in an academic style, longer and more complex than the pages above.

Sources

Based on "Complicating Conservation," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The page calls it the "Eugenics Records Office."