Struggle & Resistance Achievement & Excellence

June 1973

Into the 1970s, Black women were sterilized without consent so routinely in the South that the practice was nicknamed the "Mississippi appendectomy." Fannie Lou Hamer was a victim; the Relf sisters' case finally exposed it.

Events

June 1973
Forced sterilization and the "Mississippi appendectomy"
Into the 1970s, Black women were sterilized without consent so routinely in the South that the practice was nicknamed the "Mississippi appendectomy." Fannie Lou Hamer was a victim; the Relf sisters' case finally exposed it.

Resources from this period

Articles·2

Article· Primary

Relf v. Weinberger

Southern Poverty Law Center

The 1973 case exposing the federally funded forced sterilization of Black and poor women.

Article

Fannie Lou Hamer and the "Mississippi appendectomy"

Washington University in St. Louis

Hamer''s nonconsensual hysterectomy and the routine sterilization of Black Southern women.