'Scientific Racism': Eugenics Research Institutions Publish Studies 'Proving' Black Inferiority

Throughout the 1920s, well-funded eugenics research institutions including the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor, the American Eugenics Society, and university psychology and anthropology departments produced studies purporting to demonstrate the intellectual inferiority of Black Americans based on IQ test data. The Army Alpha and Beta tests from WWI were widely cited to justify racial hierarchy. Carl Brigham's 1923 'A Study of American Intelligence' claimed scientific proof of racial intelligence rankings. These studies were published in mainstream academic journals, cited in congressional testimony supporting immigration restriction, and used to justify everything from school segregation to sterilization programs.