Constructing Syphilis and Black Motherhood: Maternal Health Care for Women of African Descent in New York's Columbus Hill, 1915-30

Negative stereotypes of black people, and of mothers in particular, have historically had material meaning. They directly supported racialized health policies, practices, and thinking among the health care communities and inhibited black women's capacity to protect the health and welfare of themselves and their children. This was evidenced in an early twentieth-century health experiment in New York's Columbus Hill, 1917-30. This research examines how health care reformers and practitioners constructed narratives of black disease vis-à-vis motherhood or, alternately, sought to treat the presumed susceptibility of black women and communities to syphilis. The findings suggest that black mothers disproved negative stereotypes of inferior mothering by seeking out health care for themselves and their children—even to the point of consenting to the extreme discomfort and dangers of syphilis testing to receive prenatal care. Ironically, as their participation reflected an adherence to good mothering, their agency supported a growth in a medical industry that benefitted from the persistent negative stereotypes.