Ivey Foreman Lewis
Ivey Foreman Lewis was a professor of biology and agriculture at the University of Virginia and eventual dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the university. Lewis played an important role in making the University of Virginia a key player in the eugenics movement in the early 20th century.[1]
Early Life
Ivey Foreman Lewis was born in Raleigh, North Carolina on August 31, 1882 to Richard Henry Lewis, an alumnus of the University of Virginia, and Cornelia Viola Battle. Lewis’s father studied medicine under Dr. James Lawrence Cabell.[2] Lewis received his A.B. degree from the University of North Carolina in 1902 and his M.S. degree in 1903. In 1908, Lewis earned his Ph.D from John Hopkins University. His dissertation titled, The Life history of Griffithsia Bornetiana, received the Walker Prize by the Boston Society of Natural History.[3]
Career
Eugenics at the University of Virginia
In 1915, Edwin A. Alderman recruited Lewis to be the Miller Professor of Biology at the University of Virginia. During the process of hiring Lewis to the biology department at UVA, Alderman described Lewis saying, “He is a gentleman by birth and breeding, and a cultivated gentleman.”[2] Alderman and Lewis both believed that eugenics could be used to improve the social problems facing the United States at the turn of the century. They saw eugenics as a tool to help build a modern and progressive southern society. Alderman and Lewis aimed to preserve and strengthen UVA’s southern heritage while also elevating the university on the national level. Along with Harvey E. Jordan, Lewis advised Alderman in the hiring of more eugenicists in other departments of the University.[4]
His course, Biology C1: Evolution and Heredity taught that evolution, heredity, and eugenics were linked together as a scientific method for social improvement. The course’s description stated, “Evolution, the theory and its history; the principles of heredity and their application to human problems.” The course was popular among students and increased their enthusiasm on the subject.[4]
Lewis believed that there was a strong connection between society and science. He thought that genetics were what organized society and therefore should influence law and governance. Religion played an important role in this connection. Lewis believed that science was an extension of God’s will on humanity. Through science, humans could discover the natural laws of the world and improve their conditions on earth. According to Lewis, God allowed humans to control these laws through eugenics.[2]
Lewis used his work to connect heredity to politics, education, and other aspects of society. In 1924, he gave a speech to UVA students supporting immigration restrictions and the new Racial Integrity Act.
- "What goes into the hereditary mill is what comes out of it. Education and opportunity can do great things. They can bring out the best in a man, but what is in him to be brought out is a matter of heredity” stated Lewis.[5]
He used ideas of heredity and genetics to claim that there was no such thing as a melting pot and that unrestricted immigration was part of the reason that the United States was experiencing racial decay. This problem would be solved, according to Lewis, by encouraging the “best” of a race to reproduce. He therefore supported the legal action that Virginia was taking at the time to prevent racial intermarriage. He was referencing the 1924 Racial Integrity Act which not only forbade intermarriage between white and black Virginians but also required them to provide proof of their racial purity to get married.[5]
References
- ↑ Web. Eugenics at the University of Virginia, Encyclopedia Virginia, retrieved June 11, 2024.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Book. [ Segregation’s Science], Gregory M. Dorr, University of Virginia Press, retrieved June 13, 2024.
- ↑ Web. A Resolution of the Death of Ivey Foreman Lewis, B.F.D. Runk, Robert K. Gooch, December, 1964, retrieved May 30, 2024.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Web. Assuring America's Place in the Sun: Ivey Foreman Lewis and the Teaching of Eugenics at the University of Virginia, 1915-1953, Gregory M. Dorr, The Journal of Southern History, 2000, retrieved June 11, 2024.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Web. BIOLOGIST SUPPORTS CURB ON IMMIGRANTS, article, New York Times, April 6, 1924, retrieved June 13, 2024.