Lawrence Thomas Royster
Lawrence Thomas Royster was a chair of pediatrics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He was installed as the chair in 1923.[1]
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Career
Early Work
Royster was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1874. He studied medicine at the University of Virginia under Paul B. Barringer, receiving his degree in 1897. After finishing post graduate work in New York, Boston, and Baltimore, Royster chose pediatrics as his focus. He started a private practice in Norfolk in 1900, becoming a member of the city’s board of education and State Board of Health. His work informed his advocacy work for the pure food and milk campaign and hereditary determinism. Royster believed there was a strong connection between public health and eugenics. [2]
University of Virginia
Royster played an active role in Virginia's social hygiene movement. He aimed to limit transmissions of venereal diseases and eliminate prostitution. He argued that “wayward girls” or sex workers should be sent to reform institutions or even sterilized.[3] Royster became chair of pediatrics at the University of Virginia in 1923.[1] At the university, Royster was able to collaborate with William Henry Heck in eugenic research on the education of of children. They focused their studies on children because they believed that they could target the laws of heredity at an early stage to prevent unwanted social behaviors. At a young age, schoolchildren had pliant minds and were easily molded. This stage of life was therefore ideal for implanting eugenical principles into their minds. Royster advocated for these ideas to be put into laws and practices in Virginia public schools. He took this further, applying this thinking to the support of sterilization and intermarriage laws. He also worked Robert Bennet Bean on anthropological eugenic studies.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Web. Eugenics at the University of Virginia, Encyclopedia Virginia, retrieved June 11, 2024.
- ↑ Book. [ Segregation’s Science], Gregory M. Dorr, University of Virginia Press, retrieved June 13, 2024.
- ↑ Web. For the Protection of Our Children: The 1922 “Children’s Code” and the Expansion of the Commonwealth’s Eugenic Surveillance Authority, Erin n. Bush, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, retrieved June 11, 2024.