1 00:00:01,040 --> 00:00:06,160 Speaker 1: You're listening to History on Trial, a production of iHeart Podcasts. 2 00:00:06,720 --> 00:00:15,480 Speaker 1: Listener discretion advised. On October thirty first, nineteen eighteen, Nina 3 00:00:15,560 --> 00:00:21,079 Speaker 1: McCall's life changed. Nina, who had turned eighteen only two 4 00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:25,080 Speaker 1: months before, was running errands in Saint Louis, a small 5 00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:29,639 Speaker 1: town in central Michigan. Outside the post office, she ran 6 00:00:29,720 --> 00:00:35,120 Speaker 1: into Saint Louis's deputy sheriff, Lewis Martin. Nina knew Martin. 7 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:38,720 Speaker 1: He had a daughter, Bernice, who was close to Nina's age. 8 00:00:39,320 --> 00:00:41,760 Speaker 1: Nina had even been over to the Martin home to 9 00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:46,800 Speaker 1: visit Bernice. The Martins had always been nice lately, though, 10 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:51,720 Speaker 1: Deputy Martin had been acting strangely. He was always talking 11 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:55,840 Speaker 1: to girls and young women, having tense conversations with them 12 00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:58,720 Speaker 1: on the street, and sometimes even taking them away in 13 00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:01,880 Speaker 1: his car. Nina didn't know what he was up to, 14 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:06,920 Speaker 1: but it made her uneasy. When Martin approached, she was 15 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:10,920 Speaker 1: right to be frightened. Martin had bad news for her. 16 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:14,760 Speaker 1: A state health official, he said, needed to examine her 17 00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:18,720 Speaker 1: for sexually transmitted infections, and they needed to do it 18 00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:23,880 Speaker 1: right away. Nina was confused and upset. She had never 19 00:01:23,959 --> 00:01:27,560 Speaker 1: had sex, so how could she have a sexually transmitted infection, 20 00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:31,400 Speaker 1: but the sheriff had ordered her so Nina went home 21 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:34,080 Speaker 1: and asked her mother Minnie, to accompany her to the 22 00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:37,920 Speaker 1: office of doctor Thomas J. Carney, the health official in 23 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:42,440 Speaker 1: nearby Alma. When the McCalls got to Carney's office, the 24 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:45,319 Speaker 1: doctor told Nina that somebody had reported her as having 25 00:01:45,319 --> 00:01:49,880 Speaker 1: an STI and that he needed to examine her. Nina refused, 26 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:55,240 Speaker 1: but Carney insisted, and when Nina still said no, he threatened, 27 00:01:55,720 --> 00:01:58,160 Speaker 1: telling Nina that she would be sent to prison if 28 00:01:58,200 --> 00:02:03,240 Speaker 1: she did not submit to the examination. Reluctantly, Nina agreed. 29 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:08,440 Speaker 1: She had never had a gynecological examination before. The exam 30 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:13,880 Speaker 1: was terrifying and painful. After examining slides he had taken, 31 00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:18,920 Speaker 1: Carne informed Nina that she was quote slightly diseased. She 32 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:23,919 Speaker 1: had gone rhea. Nina couldn't believe it, neither could her mother. 33 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:28,120 Speaker 1: They argued, with Carney saying that Nina had never shown 34 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:31,720 Speaker 1: any symptoms of an STI and had never even had sex. 35 00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:37,120 Speaker 1: Carney was obstinate Nina had gonorrhea and she needed to 36 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:42,120 Speaker 1: receive treatment. Not just any treatment, either, Nina would have 37 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:45,400 Speaker 1: to be locked away for it. Taken to a detention 38 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:49,520 Speaker 1: hospital and treated there. Why couldn't the treatment be done 39 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:52,960 Speaker 1: at home, Minnie asked. It was too expensive for a 40 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:56,960 Speaker 1: single mother like Minnie, Carney explained. Nina said she would 41 00:02:56,960 --> 00:03:00,400 Speaker 1: get a job to help with the costs. Not possible, 42 00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:04,720 Speaker 1: Carney replied, either she agreed to go to the detention hospital, 43 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:07,400 Speaker 1: or he would hang a red placuard on the front 44 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:11,720 Speaker 1: of her family home, declaring in all capital letters that 45 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:18,320 Speaker 1: someone inside had a venereal disease. Nina recoiled. The shame 46 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:22,040 Speaker 1: would be unbearable. She couldn't put herself or her family 47 00:03:22,120 --> 00:03:25,320 Speaker 1: through that, so she agreed to be committed to the 48 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:31,000 Speaker 1: Bay City Detention Hospital. Seven days later, Carney's assistant, Ida Peck, 49 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:35,000 Speaker 1: escorted Nina to the hospital in nearby Bay City, Michigan. 50 00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:39,960 Speaker 1: It was an imposing, three story brick building. Nina would 51 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,360 Speaker 1: be kept in the hospital for three months, forced to 52 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:49,000 Speaker 1: do manual labor, while also enduring agonizing, ineffective treatments. Even 53 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:52,920 Speaker 1: when she was finally declared disease free, state health officials 54 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:56,040 Speaker 1: would continue to harass her and force her to get 55 00:03:56,040 --> 00:04:00,280 Speaker 1: further treatment. Nina's story sounds like something else out of 56 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:04,680 Speaker 1: a horror movie, but it was very real, and it 57 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:09,880 Speaker 1: was not unique. Across the country. In nineteen eighteen, thousands 58 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:12,840 Speaker 1: of women were being detained on the suspicion of having 59 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:19,400 Speaker 1: an STI, forcibly examined, and imprisoned without due process. Health 60 00:04:19,440 --> 00:04:22,560 Speaker 1: officials were empowered to do all of these things under 61 00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:27,279 Speaker 1: a program that became known hauntingly as the American Plan. 62 00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:31,200 Speaker 1: Originally put in place during World War One to protect 63 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:35,480 Speaker 1: soldiers from STIs, the American Plan would linger on even 64 00:04:35,560 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: in peacetime. In some places, women were detained under American 65 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:45,680 Speaker 1: Plan laws even as late as the nineteen seventies. The 66 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:50,159 Speaker 1: American Plan enjoyed broad popular support. Some of the most 67 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:54,800 Speaker 1: famous public figures of the twentieth century Fiorello LaGuardia, Earl 68 00:04:54,839 --> 00:04:58,600 Speaker 1: Warren and Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt, to name just a few, 69 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:04,359 Speaker 1: were enthusias bastic, proponents and enforcers of the Plan. They 70 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:08,479 Speaker 1: believed that the Plan kept Americans safe, But the women 71 00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:13,360 Speaker 1: who suffered under the American Plan felt anything but safe. 72 00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:17,120 Speaker 1: They had been stripped of their rights, hurt and humiliated, 73 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:22,760 Speaker 1: so they fought back. They escaped from detention, hospitals, held 74 00:05:22,839 --> 00:05:28,600 Speaker 1: hunger strikes, set fires, and some of them sued. One 75 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:31,160 Speaker 1: of those who pursued the legal path was Nina McCall, 76 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:35,800 Speaker 1: who filed suit against doctor Thomas Carney, his assistant Ida Peck, 77 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:39,960 Speaker 1: and the superintendent of Bay City Detention Hospital, Mary Corrigan, 78 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:44,159 Speaker 1: for abusing her. The resulting trial, which took place in 79 00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:47,640 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty, would put the central tenets of the plan 80 00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: to the test. Could public health concerns outweigh civil rights? 81 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:57,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to History on trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward. 82 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:07,279 Speaker 1: This week Rock v. Carney. On April sixth, nineteen seventeen, 83 00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:11,320 Speaker 1: the United States declared war on Germany and entered World 84 00:06:11,400 --> 00:06:15,760 Speaker 1: War One. By July nearly two million American men had 85 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:19,120 Speaker 1: been called up as part of the medical exam. Upon 86 00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:23,000 Speaker 1: entering the military, soldiers were tested for syphilis and gonorrhea. 87 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:27,880 Speaker 1: Many of them tested positive. Between August nineteen seventeen and 88 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:31,760 Speaker 1: August nineteen eighteen, the Surgeon General of the Army reported 89 00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:34,960 Speaker 1: that nearly thirteen percent of all soldiers were admitted for 90 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:40,760 Speaker 1: treatment for STIs. Sdis were costly and dangerous for the military. 91 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:44,799 Speaker 1: Sick men needed treatment and could not fight. To combat 92 00:06:44,839 --> 00:06:48,200 Speaker 1: the problem, the government attempted to reduce sex work around 93 00:06:48,279 --> 00:06:53,760 Speaker 1: military camps. In May nineteen seventeen, Senator Wesley Livesey Jones 94 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:57,320 Speaker 1: introduced an amendment to the Selective Service Act, the act 95 00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:02,240 Speaker 1: that invoked the draft, called Section thirteen. Section thirteen empowered 96 00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:06,680 Speaker 1: the Secretary of War to quote do everything by him 97 00:07:06,839 --> 00:07:10,200 Speaker 1: deemed necessary to suppress and prevent the keeping or setting 98 00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:14,240 Speaker 1: up of houses of ill fame, brothels, or body houses 99 00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:17,440 Speaker 1: within such distance as he may deem needful of any 100 00:07:17,520 --> 00:07:22,080 Speaker 1: military camp. Secretary of War Newton Baker wrote to officials 101 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:25,440 Speaker 1: in locales with military camps and informed them that sex 102 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:28,120 Speaker 1: work should be shut down within a five mile radius 103 00:07:28,120 --> 00:07:32,840 Speaker 1: of every camp. The federal organization leading STI policy was 104 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:37,920 Speaker 1: the Commission on Training Camp Activities, or the CTCA. The 105 00:07:37,920 --> 00:07:42,760 Speaker 1: ctca's law Enforcement division deployed investigators across the country to 106 00:07:42,840 --> 00:07:46,520 Speaker 1: look into whether cities were complying with the federal government's requests. 107 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:51,360 Speaker 1: These investigators were supplemented by agents from the Bureau of Investigation, 108 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:55,560 Speaker 1: the predecessor of the FBI, private groups, and members of 109 00:07:55,600 --> 00:08:00,920 Speaker 1: the American Social Hygiene Association or ASHA. By the fall 110 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:05,400 Speaker 1: of nineteen seventeen, thanks to these collaborations, the CTCA had 111 00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:10,360 Speaker 1: hundreds of investigators. At first, the ctca's work was limited 112 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:15,000 Speaker 1: to the areas around military camps, but soon Army medical 113 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:18,840 Speaker 1: officers determined that approximately five out of every six cases 114 00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:23,200 Speaker 1: of sexually transmitted infection in soldiers had been acquired before 115 00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:27,120 Speaker 1: the soldier arrived at camp. If the army wanted healthy soldiers, 116 00:08:27,440 --> 00:08:32,200 Speaker 1: they needed a healthy civilian population. The federal government began 117 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:35,760 Speaker 1: encouraging states and cities to expand their repression of sex 118 00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:39,760 Speaker 1: work into areas outside of the five mile radius surrounding 119 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:45,760 Speaker 1: military camps. This encouragement came with strong incentives. If cities 120 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:49,200 Speaker 1: did not try to reduce STI rates, the military would 121 00:08:49,240 --> 00:08:53,720 Speaker 1: declare them off limits to soldiers or military camps, enormous 122 00:08:53,760 --> 00:08:58,720 Speaker 1: economic blows. In order to ensure compliance, the federal government 123 00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:02,680 Speaker 1: also encouraged local jurisdictions to pass laws that allowed health 124 00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:07,559 Speaker 1: officials to detain, examine, and quarantine women. To provide guidance 125 00:09:07,679 --> 00:09:11,200 Speaker 1: for states, federal officials met in DC in March nineteen 126 00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:14,840 Speaker 1: eighteen to draft a model law which states could adapt 127 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:20,719 Speaker 1: and enact. The law contained twelve recommendations. These included a 128 00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:24,439 Speaker 1: requirement for physicians to report all STIs to the state 129 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:30,319 Speaker 1: quarantine and compulsory treatment, prohibition of drug stores selling treatment 130 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:35,240 Speaker 1: for STIs, thus requiring infective people to interact with physicians 131 00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:40,839 Speaker 1: and government officials to get treatment, and most critically, empowering 132 00:09:40,920 --> 00:09:46,320 Speaker 1: local health officers to examine Quote persons reasonably suspected of 133 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:54,960 Speaker 1: having syphilis, gonorrhea, or shancroid. The term reasonably suspected was 134 00:09:55,160 --> 00:10:00,280 Speaker 1: extraordinarily broad. A woman could be reasonably suspected of having 135 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:04,160 Speaker 1: an STI for activities as innocuous as walking with a soldier, 136 00:10:04,800 --> 00:10:07,320 Speaker 1: speaking to another woman thought to be a sex worker, 137 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:12,880 Speaker 1: or even eating lunch alone. Women who were detained and 138 00:10:12,960 --> 00:10:17,040 Speaker 1: tested positive for syphilis and orgonrhea were sent to detention 139 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:21,760 Speaker 1: hospitals or houses, which were essentially jails. Most had barbed 140 00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:28,679 Speaker 1: wire fences, armed guards, or both inside in often squalid conditions, 141 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:32,440 Speaker 1: The women were forced to perform taxing domestic labor, like 142 00:10:32,520 --> 00:10:37,720 Speaker 1: scrubbing floors or cleaning bathrooms. Administrators saw this work, besides 143 00:10:37,800 --> 00:10:41,680 Speaker 1: being unpaid labor that benefited the institution, as part of 144 00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:45,480 Speaker 1: a larger program of moral reform, and I wish you 145 00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:47,600 Speaker 1: could see how big the air quotes I'm doing are. 146 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:50,920 Speaker 1: It was not enough for inmates to be treated for 147 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:55,160 Speaker 1: their physical conditions. Many officials involved in the American Plan 148 00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:59,160 Speaker 1: believed that these women needed instruction in conforming to a 149 00:10:59,160 --> 00:11:03,120 Speaker 1: specific set of moral and social norms. As part of 150 00:11:03,160 --> 00:11:07,360 Speaker 1: this program of behavioral correction, some detention houses used a 151 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:10,960 Speaker 1: silence rule. Women there were not allowed to speak to 152 00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:15,040 Speaker 1: or even smile at one another. If they disobeyed this 153 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:19,640 Speaker 1: prohibition or any other orders, they could face corporal punishment. 154 00:11:20,640 --> 00:11:24,040 Speaker 1: The women did receive treatment for their sdis they usually 155 00:11:24,040 --> 00:11:27,680 Speaker 1: had no choice in the matter. These treatments were largely 156 00:11:27,720 --> 00:11:32,560 Speaker 1: ineffective and often dangerous, since they were usually arsenic or 157 00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:38,040 Speaker 1: mercury based. Women also had their intelligence assessed with inaccurate, 158 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:42,400 Speaker 1: discriminatory IQ tests. If a woman was bound to be 159 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:48,960 Speaker 1: quote feeble minded, she could be imprisoned indefinitely. Feeble minded 160 00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:52,160 Speaker 1: women were seen to be prone to immorality. In the 161 00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:56,720 Speaker 1: worst cases, some of these women were sterilized, usually without 162 00:11:56,760 --> 00:12:00,280 Speaker 1: their consent. At this point, you might be one ding 163 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:04,760 Speaker 1: why I'm only talking about women. After all, sexually transmitted 164 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:08,800 Speaker 1: infections don't discriminate on the basis of gender, but not 165 00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:13,480 Speaker 1: everyone is as enlightened as a syphilis bacterium. Although the 166 00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:19,120 Speaker 1: Model law was gender neutral, its application never was very 167 00:12:19,440 --> 00:12:23,400 Speaker 1: Very few men were ever examined or quarantined under these laws. 168 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:27,280 Speaker 1: There was a common misconception that women spread STIs more 169 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:30,760 Speaker 1: than men did. As one federal public health official put it, 170 00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:35,880 Speaker 1: quote men take more precautions. Women are very negligent. It 171 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:40,640 Speaker 1: was an obviously sexist assumption. But as the historian Scott W. 172 00:12:40,720 --> 00:12:43,560 Speaker 1: Stern writes in his book The Trials of Nina McCall, 173 00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:49,679 Speaker 1: these laws were based entirely on assumptions. Assumptions that quote, 174 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:53,160 Speaker 1: young women were responsible for the indiscretions of young men, 175 00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:56,880 Speaker 1: That promiscuity in women was worse than it was in men. 176 00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:01,120 Speaker 1: That STIs merited jail time for women, That women could 177 00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:03,960 Speaker 1: not merely serve their time as men did, but that 178 00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:06,960 Speaker 1: they had to be cured of disease and be reformed 179 00:13:07,040 --> 00:13:12,480 Speaker 1: in order to merit release. Enforcement was also racist. CTCA 180 00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:18,520 Speaker 1: investigators were instructed to focus on black women and black neighborhoods. Unfortunately, 181 00:13:18,679 --> 00:13:21,839 Speaker 1: many local officials saw no problems with any of these 182 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:26,120 Speaker 1: assumptions or biases. States began passing the model law quickly. 183 00:13:27,160 --> 00:13:30,360 Speaker 1: You might also be wondering about the constitutionality of these laws. 184 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:33,840 Speaker 1: Surely people could not be locked up without due process 185 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:39,120 Speaker 1: right wrong, at least according to United States Attorney General 186 00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:44,120 Speaker 1: Thomas Watt Gregory. On April third, nineteen eighteen, Gregory wrote 187 00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:47,000 Speaker 1: a letter to every United States attorney across the country 188 00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:50,880 Speaker 1: ordering that people arrested for prostitution should first be sent 189 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:54,520 Speaker 1: to health officials for STI examination. If a woman was 190 00:13:54,559 --> 00:13:57,679 Speaker 1: found to be infected, she should be quarantined and treated. 191 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:02,440 Speaker 1: Prosecution for her crimes should be suspended until she completed 192 00:14:02,440 --> 00:14:06,160 Speaker 1: this quarantine, meaning that she would be locked up without trial. 193 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:12,280 Speaker 1: Gregory called the constitutionality of this plan quote clear. He 194 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:15,640 Speaker 1: also told the US attorneys to report any local officials 195 00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:18,679 Speaker 1: who refused to go along with the plan. Gregory sent 196 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:23,320 Speaker 1: a similar message to all US district judges. Even before 197 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:26,560 Speaker 1: the creation of the model law, some states had used 198 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:30,840 Speaker 1: their own initiative to make regulations. In October nineteen seventeen, 199 00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:34,280 Speaker 1: the Michigan State Board of Health ordered physicians to report 200 00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:38,360 Speaker 1: all cases of gonorrhea and syphilis and to apprehend, detain, 201 00:14:38,640 --> 00:14:42,400 Speaker 1: and treat anyone found to be infected. The secretary of 202 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:46,800 Speaker 1: the board, Richard m Ollen, also met with pharmacists associations 203 00:14:47,280 --> 00:14:50,880 Speaker 1: and got them to agree to stop selling STI treatments. 204 00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:55,240 Speaker 1: Michigan's regulations closely mirrored what would appear in the Model Law. 205 00:14:56,320 --> 00:15:00,800 Speaker 1: Less than a year later, Nina McCall would experience firsthand 206 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:09,040 Speaker 1: with those regulations meant. Nina McCall was born on September second, 207 00:15:09,280 --> 00:15:13,760 Speaker 1: nineteen hundred to Abe and Minnie McCall. Two years later, 208 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:18,000 Speaker 1: Nina's younger brother, Vern arrived. The McCalls lived on a 209 00:15:18,040 --> 00:15:22,320 Speaker 1: farm outside of Bethany Township in central Michigan until nineteen ten, 210 00:15:22,800 --> 00:15:26,320 Speaker 1: when they moved to nearby Saint Louis. Saint Louis was 211 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:31,400 Speaker 1: a small town, one where everybody knew everybody. In nineteen sixteen, 212 00:15:31,560 --> 00:15:35,760 Speaker 1: Abe McCall died, leaving his family in a difficult financial position. 213 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:39,200 Speaker 1: Within a year, Minnie McCall had to sell their home 214 00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:43,280 Speaker 1: in Saint Louis. Minnie, Nina, and Verne moved to Alma, 215 00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:46,680 Speaker 1: a neighboring town. It was at this point that seventeen 216 00:15:46,720 --> 00:15:50,720 Speaker 1: year old Nina stopped attending school altogether. Her attendance had 217 00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:53,480 Speaker 1: always been spotty, but after the move to Alma, she 218 00:15:53,560 --> 00:15:56,920 Speaker 1: never went back. It was an exciting time to be 219 00:15:57,000 --> 00:15:59,800 Speaker 1: a young woman, even in a rural town like Alma. 220 00:16:00,640 --> 00:16:03,960 Speaker 1: More and more women were entering the workforce, giving them 221 00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:08,120 Speaker 1: greater economic power and a new level of independence. Young 222 00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:11,280 Speaker 1: women began to casually date more than they ever had before, 223 00:16:11,760 --> 00:16:16,000 Speaker 1: and rates of premarital sex rose. Nina herself began dating 224 00:16:16,040 --> 00:16:20,040 Speaker 1: a young man named Lloyd Knapp. In May nineteen eighteen. 225 00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:23,480 Speaker 1: Nina and Lloyd filed for a marriage license, but they 226 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:27,320 Speaker 1: never completed the paperwork and never married. A month later, 227 00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:30,960 Speaker 1: the McCalls moved back to Saint Louis. At the same time, 228 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:35,040 Speaker 1: soldiers were beginning to flood at Central Michigan. Alma was 229 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:38,440 Speaker 1: home to the Republic Motor Truck Company, which made trucks 230 00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:41,760 Speaker 1: for the army, and soldiers arrived in droves to help 231 00:16:41,840 --> 00:16:45,120 Speaker 1: drive the trucks east. The presence of so many new 232 00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:49,160 Speaker 1: people met good things economically for the region, but there 233 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:53,320 Speaker 1: were concerns too. In May, the Alma Record wrote that 234 00:16:53,360 --> 00:16:56,880 Speaker 1: the city council needed to quote do away with the 235 00:16:56,920 --> 00:17:00,400 Speaker 1: present state of affairs in the city, where men seemed 236 00:17:00,440 --> 00:17:04,160 Speaker 1: to think that they are privileged to accost ladies. Only 237 00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:08,119 Speaker 1: some ladies were entitled to protection. Though the record also 238 00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:11,840 Speaker 1: noted quote the presence of so many men is said 239 00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:17,840 Speaker 1: to be bringing women of an unsavory reputation into the city. 240 00:17:18,440 --> 00:17:22,360 Speaker 1: The record need not have worried the city's health officer, 241 00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:26,720 Speaker 1: Doctor Thomas J. Carney, was on the case. The forty 242 00:17:26,800 --> 00:17:29,359 Speaker 1: nine year old Carney, a NeDi of New Yorker, had 243 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:34,000 Speaker 1: arrived in Alma three years earlier. An inflexible, dogmatic man 244 00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:37,720 Speaker 1: with strong beliefs, Carney was determined to root out any 245 00:17:37,800 --> 00:17:42,200 Speaker 1: sources of ill health, from unpasteurized milk to promiscuous women. 246 00:17:43,119 --> 00:17:45,760 Speaker 1: Carney would be aided in his work by Ida Peck. 247 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:49,360 Speaker 1: Peck had held a number of jobs all across Michigan 248 00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:52,400 Speaker 1: in her fifty seven years. She had been a school teacher, 249 00:17:52,640 --> 00:17:56,280 Speaker 1: a private nurse, and a factory foreman. But beginning in 250 00:17:56,320 --> 00:18:01,560 Speaker 1: September nineteen eighteen, Peck would be a welfare worker. According 251 00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:04,920 Speaker 1: to Peck, quote, a welfare worker is one who looks 252 00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:08,840 Speaker 1: after the girls. In reality, it was less looking after 253 00:18:09,119 --> 00:18:13,359 Speaker 1: than looking into. Thomas Carney hired Peck to help enforce 254 00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:17,960 Speaker 1: Michigan's STI laws. Peck later described her work as identifying 255 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:22,119 Speaker 1: and following women who quote raised a suspicion in my mind. 256 00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:25,679 Speaker 1: Then she would report these women to doctor Carney, who 257 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:28,719 Speaker 1: would have them detained and then examine them for STIs. 258 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:32,240 Speaker 1: If their results were positive, Peck would escort the women 259 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:36,000 Speaker 1: to the detention hospital in Bay City, fifty miles northeast 260 00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:39,880 Speaker 1: of Saint Louis, Ida. Peck first heard Nina mccaull's name 261 00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:44,080 Speaker 1: in early October nineteen eighteen. She was transporting women to 262 00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:48,440 Speaker 1: Bay City when one of them mentioned Nina's name. Nothing more, 263 00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:51,720 Speaker 1: just her name, but that was enough for Peck to 264 00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:55,120 Speaker 1: put Nina on her radar. Less than a month later, 265 00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:59,760 Speaker 1: on October thirty, First Deputy Martin brought Nina into Carney's office. 266 00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:03,560 Speaker 1: Whether Carney and Peck had any reason for suspecting Nina 267 00:19:03,760 --> 00:19:07,600 Speaker 1: besides the fact that another woman mentioned her name is unknown, 268 00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:12,520 Speaker 1: but the reasons why didn't really matter one way or another. 269 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:15,960 Speaker 1: Nina had been sucked into the grinding machinery of the 270 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:21,280 Speaker 1: American Plan. As an aside, the term American Plan entered 271 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:26,240 Speaker 1: widespread use only after World War One. Federal officials used 272 00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:29,240 Speaker 1: the term occasionally before that, but it was only in 273 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:32,879 Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen that American Plan became the name for this 274 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:37,000 Speaker 1: set of state and federal policies. The name American Plan 275 00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:40,679 Speaker 1: paralleled other national plans for the control of STIs and 276 00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:45,080 Speaker 1: sex work, like the French Plan, created under Napoleon. For example, 277 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:49,879 Speaker 1: Nina didn't know the plan as anything. She might not 278 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:53,040 Speaker 1: have even known how many other women were enduring what 279 00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:57,879 Speaker 1: she was. There were thousands of them in Michigan alone. 280 00:19:58,080 --> 00:20:02,880 Speaker 1: Between July one, nineteen eight eighteenth and June thirtieth, nineteen nineteen, 281 00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:07,359 Speaker 1: one thousand, one hundred and twenty one people were forcibly 282 00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:11,600 Speaker 1: detained for treatment, one thousand and seventy two of them women. 283 00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:16,639 Speaker 1: But Nina felt so alone. She would later say that 284 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:19,400 Speaker 1: she only told her mother and her two aunts about 285 00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:24,359 Speaker 1: her experience because quote I was ashamed of it. To 286 00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:29,399 Speaker 1: contextualize Nina's reaction, STIs were so stigmatized at the time 287 00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:33,680 Speaker 1: that many newspapers would not even print the words venereal disease. 288 00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:39,280 Speaker 1: After Carney examined Nina, diagnosed her with gonorrhea and informed 289 00:20:39,280 --> 00:20:42,200 Speaker 1: her that she would need and her detention hospital for treatment, 290 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,640 Speaker 1: he sent her home for the night. On the bus 291 00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:49,160 Speaker 1: ride home, Nina discovered that, as a result of Carney's 292 00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:54,760 Speaker 1: gynecological exam, she had bled through her trousers. The next day, 293 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:58,000 Speaker 1: Nina traveled back to Carney's office to report to the hospital. 294 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:01,000 Speaker 1: Carney told her that i'da pas was sick and could 295 00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:03,440 Speaker 1: not escort her, so Nina would have to return later. 296 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:06,199 Speaker 1: He told her the same thing on every one of 297 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:10,439 Speaker 1: her return visits for the next seven days. Strangely, for 298 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:12,960 Speaker 1: a doctor who claimed that Nina was such a health 299 00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:16,600 Speaker 1: risk to her community, Garney didn't seem too stressed about 300 00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:21,080 Speaker 1: getting her quarantined. On November sixth, Ida Pek was well 301 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:24,280 Speaker 1: enough to take Nina to Bay City. The hospital had 302 00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:27,520 Speaker 1: been constructed in nineteen eleven to hold patients with contagious 303 00:21:27,560 --> 00:21:32,160 Speaker 1: diseases like smallpox and scarlet fever. In February nineteen eighteen, 304 00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:35,320 Speaker 1: Richard Olan, the head of Michigan State Board of Health, 305 00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:38,879 Speaker 1: had requested that the hospital be transformed into a detention 306 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:43,200 Speaker 1: hospital for women obtained under the American Plan. The city 307 00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:46,280 Speaker 1: readily agreed, in part because the state would pay them 308 00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:50,360 Speaker 1: for their services. Bay City would receive fifteen dollars per 309 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:54,480 Speaker 1: patient per week, more than enough to cover any expenses 310 00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:58,960 Speaker 1: associated with the hospital. This kind of arrangement wasn't unusual. 311 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:03,760 Speaker 1: Cities received state and federal funding to detain women, giving 312 00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:08,320 Speaker 1: them an economic incentive to enforce the plan. When Nina arrived, 313 00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:12,200 Speaker 1: she met the hospital's superintendent, thirty six year old Mary Corrigan, 314 00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:16,399 Speaker 1: a former nurse. She was given her first meal. She 315 00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:20,320 Speaker 1: would later testify that the food was mainly potatoes and beets. 316 00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:23,880 Speaker 1: Then she was shown into a small room with two beds. 317 00:22:24,560 --> 00:22:27,000 Speaker 1: Nina would have to share a bed with another woman. 318 00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:31,920 Speaker 1: The hospital was overcrowded. Its maximum capacity was only fifty, 319 00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:35,120 Speaker 1: but there were closer to sixty or maybe even sixty 320 00:22:35,119 --> 00:22:40,600 Speaker 1: five women there. When Nina arrived, A nurse drew Nina's 321 00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:44,120 Speaker 1: blood and sent it off for testing. Two weeks later, 322 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:47,879 Speaker 1: the results came back. Nina had tested positive for syphilis. 323 00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:51,639 Speaker 1: We should take this result with a large grain of salt. 324 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:55,439 Speaker 1: The test used at the time, the Wasserman test, had 325 00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:59,439 Speaker 1: a false positive rate of twenty five percent, but the 326 00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:02,280 Speaker 1: results were never questioned by the officials at Bay City. 327 00:23:03,160 --> 00:23:07,240 Speaker 1: Nina began to receive injections to treat her syphilis. Treatment 328 00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:11,480 Speaker 1: at this time consisted of injections of mercury and arsenic. 329 00:23:12,359 --> 00:23:16,400 Speaker 1: Not only did these injections not treat syphilis, they actively 330 00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:21,159 Speaker 1: harmed patients. Nina's hair began to fall out, her teeth 331 00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:25,240 Speaker 1: became sore and loose. Her arm where she got the 332 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:29,800 Speaker 1: shots swelled up so much she could barely move it. 333 00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:34,160 Speaker 1: Despite these painful conditions, Nina was still forced to work. 334 00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:38,080 Speaker 1: While at Bay City. She washed dishes, scrubbed the operating 335 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:43,160 Speaker 1: room floors, and scoured toilets. The work was interminable, grueling, 336 00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:46,920 Speaker 1: and unpaid. There was little time for fun, and even 337 00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:49,120 Speaker 1: if there had been, the women at Bay City were 338 00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:52,560 Speaker 1: kept mainly inside. There was a ditch in front of 339 00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:56,720 Speaker 1: the hospital and inmates were not allowed past it. Nina 340 00:23:56,760 --> 00:23:59,520 Speaker 1: had initially been ordered to the hospital because of testing 341 00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:02,920 Speaker 1: positive for gonorrhea, but while at Bay City, she received 342 00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:07,159 Speaker 1: only two treatments for this condition. Unsurprisingly, given the effect 343 00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:10,360 Speaker 1: the mercury and arsenic shots had on her, Nina did 344 00:24:10,359 --> 00:24:13,439 Speaker 1: not want to receive more treatment. When the doctor arrived 345 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:17,880 Speaker 1: to administer gonerhea treatments, Nina simply stayed away. She only 346 00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:22,199 Speaker 1: received formal orders, which she did not disobey to receive treatment. 347 00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:26,560 Speaker 1: Six weeks into her stay, a doctor applied a compounded 348 00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:31,119 Speaker 1: silver cream to her vulva, another ineffective treatment. Nina only 349 00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:35,760 Speaker 1: ever received two rounds of this topical cream. Despite the 350 00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:41,240 Speaker 1: ineffective infrequent applications, Nina was declared quote free from syphilis 351 00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:45,240 Speaker 1: and gottorrhea in the infectious stage. In January nineteen nineteen. 352 00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:50,240 Speaker 1: If you're wondering how this is possible, you're not alone. 353 00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:53,960 Speaker 1: Scott Stern writes, quote, even if we were to believe 354 00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:57,760 Speaker 1: that she truly had syphilis and gonorrhea when Carney examined her, 355 00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:02,479 Speaker 1: and that the two infections coincidentally advanced to layton and 356 00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:06,000 Speaker 1: non contagious stages on their own, which was certainly possible. 357 00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:10,320 Speaker 1: For this timeline to fit the timing of Nina's examination 358 00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:16,040 Speaker 1: and incarceration exactly, would have had to be a remarkable coincidence. 359 00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:21,760 Speaker 1: Whatever the cause, Nina was declared released from quarantine. She 360 00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:25,800 Speaker 1: was given train fare home. After three months, she was 361 00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:30,600 Speaker 1: finally free, but her ordeal would not end there. When 362 00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:33,560 Speaker 1: Nina returned home, she found it difficult to find a job. 363 00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:36,680 Speaker 1: Richard Olin, the director of the State Board of Health, 364 00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:39,879 Speaker 1: claimed that there were programs to help women get employment 365 00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:44,240 Speaker 1: after release. Nina, for one, did not receive any assistance 366 00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:47,639 Speaker 1: of this kind. She eventually got a restaurant job in 367 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:50,880 Speaker 1: nearby Mount Pleasant, but lost that job a week later 368 00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:53,760 Speaker 1: when someone informed her employers that she had been at 369 00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:57,960 Speaker 1: Bay City. A week after Nina returned home, Ida Peck 370 00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:01,359 Speaker 1: showed up at the McCall house. Nina needed to report 371 00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:05,399 Speaker 1: to doctor Carney for further treatment, Peck said. Nina protested 372 00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:08,800 Speaker 1: that she had been declared free of disease. Peck told 373 00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:12,160 Speaker 1: Nina she could either get treatment or be sent to jail. 374 00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:16,359 Speaker 1: Afraid of being sent away again, Nina began making the 375 00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:20,720 Speaker 1: journey to Carney's office every five days, receiving more painful 376 00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:25,360 Speaker 1: mercury injections. The shots made her body ache, she had 377 00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:29,920 Speaker 1: trouble walking. Even though Nina was complying with Peck's orders, 378 00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:33,800 Speaker 1: the welfare worker would not leave her alone. Peck showed 379 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:37,439 Speaker 1: up at her house regularly. Nina later said, quote, she 380 00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:40,199 Speaker 1: was just hounding the life out of me, chasing me 381 00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:44,640 Speaker 1: day and night. This was not an unusual experience for 382 00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:48,159 Speaker 1: former detainees. Most women who were released were on a 383 00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:52,840 Speaker 1: kind of parole. Social or welfare workers monitored the women 384 00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:57,520 Speaker 1: closely and often dictated their life choices, from what jobs 385 00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:00,720 Speaker 1: they could do to where they could live. Women could 386 00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:03,680 Speaker 1: be declared parole violators for any number of my old 387 00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:07,800 Speaker 1: things like breaking curfew or wearing makeup, and sent back 388 00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:13,080 Speaker 1: to detention centers. After three months of harassment, Nina started 389 00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:16,720 Speaker 1: thinking about her options. I'd a Peck might be willing 390 00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:20,360 Speaker 1: to harass a teenager and her widowed mother, but maybe 391 00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:23,040 Speaker 1: Nina thought Peck would back off if she had to 392 00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:26,919 Speaker 1: answer to a man. So Nina decided to get married. 393 00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:31,280 Speaker 1: I got married, Nina would later say, to get away 394 00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:36,560 Speaker 1: from her. But tragically, Nina's new husband, Claire Rock, only 395 00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:41,400 Speaker 1: posed new dangers. On their wedding night, Nina recounted, Claire 396 00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:44,600 Speaker 1: told her quote, he just simply married me because I 397 00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:47,119 Speaker 1: had been in Bay City. He thought he could do 398 00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:50,760 Speaker 1: just as he pleased. He wanted to take me to Detroit. 399 00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:54,240 Speaker 1: He wanted me to make his living by having The 400 00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:57,679 Speaker 1: trial transcript is censored here, but we can read between 401 00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:02,760 Speaker 1: the lines Claire wanted to pimp her. Ida Peck was 402 00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:05,840 Speaker 1: furious that Nina had dared to marry without her permission. 403 00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:09,080 Speaker 1: She showed up at the McCall home and told Minnie 404 00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:12,320 Speaker 1: that she was going to send Nina to jail. After 405 00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:16,080 Speaker 1: Nina returned from her honeymoon, a disastrous two day trip 406 00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:19,240 Speaker 1: during which Claire had gone to see another woman in Detroit, 407 00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:22,320 Speaker 1: she learned that Ida Pack had been harassing her mother. 408 00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:27,600 Speaker 1: Was there no way to escape the shadow of Bay City. Desperate, 409 00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:32,040 Speaker 1: Nina made the decision to run. After a zigzagging journey, 410 00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:34,320 Speaker 1: she ended up in Detroit, where she stayed for the 411 00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:38,080 Speaker 1: next several months, trying to make a living. Ida Peck 412 00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:43,360 Speaker 1: kept after Minnie, demanding that she share her daughter's new address. 413 00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:49,040 Speaker 1: Minnie refused to tell her. Then something shifted. In September, 414 00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:51,840 Speaker 1: Minnie wrote to Nina, telling her that she should come home. 415 00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:55,160 Speaker 1: A woman had come to see her. Minnie told Nina, 416 00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:59,600 Speaker 1: and had given her advice about Nina's situation. Nina, this 417 00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:03,360 Speaker 1: woman had had said, ought to sue the government. The 418 00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:07,640 Speaker 1: woman was named Elizabeth Giffens. Her issues with the American 419 00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:12,360 Speaker 1: Plan were faith based. A Christian scientist, Elizabeth objected to 420 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:17,240 Speaker 1: the government forcing medical treatment on anyone. A wealthy, passionate woman, 421 00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:20,520 Speaker 1: Elizabeth told Manny that she would help the McCalls get 422 00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:24,760 Speaker 1: justice in Detroit. Nina must have felt a faint glimmer 423 00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:28,480 Speaker 1: of hope. It had been almost a year since Deputy 424 00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:33,360 Speaker 1: Martin had stopped her on the street and upended her life. Finally, 425 00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:35,960 Speaker 1: after all this time, there might be a way to 426 00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:39,440 Speaker 1: fight back. But could a nineteen year old take on 427 00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:46,040 Speaker 1: the state government. On November third, nineteen nineteen, Nina McCall 428 00:29:46,200 --> 00:29:50,560 Speaker 1: filed suit against doctor Thomas Carney, welfare worker Ida Peck, 429 00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:56,320 Speaker 1: and hospital superintendent Mary Corrigan for conspiring together to quote 430 00:29:56,800 --> 00:30:01,080 Speaker 1: transgress the lawful rights of this plaintiff and alleged that, 431 00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:07,480 Speaker 1: through quote wrongful assumption of power and authority, and by misrepresentation, coercion, 432 00:30:07,560 --> 00:30:13,880 Speaker 1: and duress, caused this plaintiff to be assaulted, maltreated, abused, arrested, 433 00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:20,320 Speaker 1: restrained and imprisoned, and grossly slandered, disgraced, and humiliated. The 434 00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:23,760 Speaker 1: three attorneys who filed this suit on Nina's behalf were 435 00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:27,560 Speaker 1: some of the most prominent lawyers in Michigan. Dean Kelly 436 00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:31,240 Speaker 1: was a former prosecutor and judge. George Stone was also 437 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:35,440 Speaker 1: a former judge. Seymour Person was a state representative. How 438 00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:38,440 Speaker 1: Nina came to have such high powered lawyers is unknown. 439 00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:42,480 Speaker 1: Nina denied on the stand that Elizabeth Giffins, the wealthy 440 00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:46,080 Speaker 1: Christian scientist who had encouraged her to sue, was funding 441 00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:49,920 Speaker 1: her case. Elizabeth was supporting Nina in other ways, though 442 00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:54,920 Speaker 1: Nina soon became her housekeeper and chauffeur. Nina also lived 443 00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:57,760 Speaker 1: with the Giffens family at one point. She was by 444 00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:01,560 Speaker 1: now completely estranged from her husband, Claire Rock, though she 445 00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,320 Speaker 1: did keep his last name, which is why the case 446 00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:08,400 Speaker 1: is known as Rock v. Carney. The trial date was 447 00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:12,160 Speaker 1: set for Tuesday, June first, nineteen twenty, at the Grashat 448 00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:16,320 Speaker 1: County Courthouse in Ithaca. The judge was Edward J. Money, 449 00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:19,360 Speaker 1: a forty seven year old circuit court judge with an 450 00:31:19,360 --> 00:31:24,440 Speaker 1: intense gaze and strong opinions. The jury consisted of twelve men. 451 00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:27,600 Speaker 1: Though women had begun serving on juries in Michigan in 452 00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:31,520 Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, somehow Nina ended up with an all male jury. 453 00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:36,120 Speaker 1: All three of the defendants, Carneie, Peck, and Corrigan appeared 454 00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:40,000 Speaker 1: along with their lawyers. Like Nina, they had brought in 455 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:45,240 Speaker 1: serious legal firepower. O. L. Smith was the Grashat County Prosecutor, 456 00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:48,720 Speaker 1: acting in a private capacity here. Smith was also the 457 00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:52,040 Speaker 1: former law partner of Nina's attorney, George Stone, and had 458 00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:56,400 Speaker 1: recently beaten Stone in the race for county prosecutor. Alva Cummins, 459 00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:59,960 Speaker 1: another defense lawyer, had been a county prosecutor in Ingham County. 460 00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:05,000 Speaker 1: Nina herself was the first to testify. Lawyer Dean Kelly 461 00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:09,640 Speaker 1: walked her through her story. The humiliating, painful gynecological exam, 462 00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:15,360 Speaker 1: the confinement in the hospital, the excruciating injections, the harassment. 463 00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:20,120 Speaker 1: Even after she was released, Nina spoke plainly, laying out 464 00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:23,440 Speaker 1: the terrible details of her ordeal in a straightforward way. 465 00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:28,120 Speaker 1: On cross examination, lawyer Alva Cummins pushed Nina on her 466 00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:32,480 Speaker 1: romantic and sexual history. Hadn't she had frequent associations with 467 00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:37,480 Speaker 1: soldier boys? No, Nina said. Didn't she know Lloyd Nap? 468 00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:40,960 Speaker 1: Nina said that she did know Lloyd Nap, This was 469 00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:43,640 Speaker 1: the young man she had once planned to marry, but 470 00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:47,440 Speaker 1: she denied knowing another local boy and soldier or In Strauss. 471 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:49,920 Speaker 1: She denied that she and a friend had ever spent 472 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:53,760 Speaker 1: the night with Lloyd and Orin. She denied accepting rides 473 00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:58,280 Speaker 1: from men. The accusation, Cummins concluded, is that you had 474 00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:04,960 Speaker 1: improper relations with soldiers, Well, said, Nina, I didn't. Cummin's 475 00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:08,400 Speaker 1: intent with these questions was not necessarily to prove that 476 00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:11,520 Speaker 1: Nina was having sex with soldiers. It was to prove 477 00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:15,560 Speaker 1: that people believed that Nina was giving Carney and Peck 478 00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:19,280 Speaker 1: reason to suspect her of having an STI. Next to 479 00:33:19,320 --> 00:33:24,520 Speaker 1: testify was Nina's mother, Minnie McCall. Minnie corroborated her daughter's narrative. 480 00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:28,360 Speaker 1: She also detailed how Ida Peck had harassed her while 481 00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:32,920 Speaker 1: Nina was in Detroit. After Minnie, Bay City Superintendent Mary 482 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:37,160 Speaker 1: Corgan testified, she disagreed with Nina's portrayal of Bay City. 483 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,200 Speaker 1: Nina said that the inmates were only served beats and potatoes. 484 00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:45,520 Speaker 1: Corrigan said quote, the girls were provided with suitable food. 485 00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:48,480 Speaker 1: We had red beats, but that was not the exclusive 486 00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:51,960 Speaker 1: bill of fare. Corgan claimed that the women had more 487 00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:55,400 Speaker 1: freedom of movement than Nina had said they did. Coregan 488 00:33:55,560 --> 00:34:00,120 Speaker 1: also denied knowing doctor Thomas Carney on Cross. However, Dan 489 00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:02,360 Speaker 1: Kelly got her to admit that she had placed a 490 00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:05,280 Speaker 1: call to doctor Carney in January to notify him of 491 00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:11,560 Speaker 1: Nina's release. Ida Peck testified next. Peck portrayed herself as 492 00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:15,120 Speaker 1: a woman simply doing her duty. She said that Nina 493 00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:17,960 Speaker 1: had never complained to her about the conditions at Bay City. 494 00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:21,000 Speaker 1: She said that she only had visited Nina and Minnie 495 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:26,280 Speaker 1: a handful of times. She denied ever threatening Nina. All 496 00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:28,719 Speaker 1: of her actions had been well within the scope of 497 00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:32,799 Speaker 1: her welfare work. In Peck's story, but on closer examination, 498 00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:37,520 Speaker 1: that story had holes. Peck claim the only reason she 499 00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:41,400 Speaker 1: had continued asking Minni for Nina's address was because she 500 00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:44,400 Speaker 1: was trying to help a jeweler's wife collect on a 501 00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:47,320 Speaker 1: bill that Nina owed for a ring she had purchased. 502 00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:51,000 Speaker 1: Why would a jeweler ask an acquaintance of his wife 503 00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:55,320 Speaker 1: to serve as a bill collector. Peck also denied confronting 504 00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:58,520 Speaker 1: Minnie on the day of Nina's wedding, saying, it is 505 00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:00,680 Speaker 1: not true that within twenty four hours, hours after I 506 00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:02,719 Speaker 1: heard of the girls being married, I was over there 507 00:35:02,719 --> 00:35:06,719 Speaker 1: to her mother's house, But only minutes later Peck admitted 508 00:35:06,719 --> 00:35:09,600 Speaker 1: that she saw them a calls quote the day Nina 509 00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:14,520 Speaker 1: was married. Peck's justification for bringing in women for examinations 510 00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:17,960 Speaker 1: also seemed vague. She simply said that if a girl 511 00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:21,200 Speaker 1: had a quote suspicious character, she would send them in. 512 00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:25,640 Speaker 1: Peck determined character, she said, by watching women and seeing 513 00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:29,680 Speaker 1: quote where they went and what they did. As for Nina, 514 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:32,400 Speaker 1: Peck claimed that she had admitted to having sex with 515 00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:36,600 Speaker 1: Lloyd Nap. Plaintiff's lawyer, Seymour Person brought Nina back on 516 00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:40,200 Speaker 1: the stand after Peck's testimony to push back on this claim. 517 00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:42,960 Speaker 1: It is not true. Nina said that I told her 518 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:45,719 Speaker 1: that I had sexual relations with this boy. I did 519 00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:49,160 Speaker 1: not have sexual relations with him. It's impossible for us 520 00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:51,680 Speaker 1: to know more than one hundred years later the extent 521 00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:55,279 Speaker 1: of Nina's relationship with Lloyd Nap, But I think it's 522 00:35:55,400 --> 00:35:59,080 Speaker 1: pretty unlikely that she would openly admit to having sex 523 00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:02,799 Speaker 1: with him to Peck, a virtual stranger who was in 524 00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:07,400 Speaker 1: the process of locking her up. Once Nina had finished testifying, 525 00:36:07,680 --> 00:36:11,240 Speaker 1: and once Alva Cummins had recross examined her and brought 526 00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:14,040 Speaker 1: up even more boys who he accused her of dating, 527 00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:19,120 Speaker 1: Nina denied all these claims. The plaintiff's side rested before 528 00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:24,040 Speaker 1: any defense witnesses testified. Alva Cummins made emotion asked the 529 00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:28,160 Speaker 1: charges be dismissed. Carney, Peck, and Corgan had acted within 530 00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:31,759 Speaker 1: their authority, he said, and they had not conspired to 531 00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:35,680 Speaker 1: do wrong. Their actions had all been taken individually. Dean 532 00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:38,680 Speaker 1: Kelly for the plaintiff, argued that the three defendants had 533 00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:43,279 Speaker 1: exceeded their authority. Judge one A took fifteen minutes to 534 00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:46,360 Speaker 1: consider the arguments. When he called the lawyers back in, 535 00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:50,480 Speaker 1: he announced that there was quote no proof in my judgment, 536 00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:54,719 Speaker 1: which shows a conspiracy between the three defendants. Thus, he 537 00:36:54,760 --> 00:36:58,200 Speaker 1: instructed Nina's lawyers to choose only one of the defendants 538 00:36:58,200 --> 00:37:02,600 Speaker 1: to proceed against. The lawyers chose Carney, believing that his 539 00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:07,320 Speaker 1: forced examination of Nina was beyond his authority. The defense 540 00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:11,200 Speaker 1: only called one witness, Richard Olan, the former head of 541 00:37:11,239 --> 00:37:13,600 Speaker 1: the State Board of Health and the current head of 542 00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:17,640 Speaker 1: the newly formed State Department of Health. Olan's job was 543 00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:21,279 Speaker 1: to rebut the plaintiff's argument that Carney had exceeded his authority. 544 00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:25,560 Speaker 1: He testified that he had employed doctor Carney as quote, 545 00:37:25,719 --> 00:37:28,600 Speaker 1: a medical inspector for the purpose of the venereal disease 546 00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:32,480 Speaker 1: campaign within his county. Dean Kelly objected that Olan did 547 00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:35,000 Speaker 1: not have the authority to employ doctor Carney in this way. 548 00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:39,640 Speaker 1: Cummins said he did. Judge Money told Olan to continue. 549 00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:43,760 Speaker 1: Cummins walked Oland through the state's policies through the creation 550 00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:47,359 Speaker 1: of detention hospitals, the enlistment of doctors to examine women, 551 00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:51,480 Speaker 1: and the enforced treatment of disease. After a cross examination 552 00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:54,880 Speaker 1: in which Dean Kelly unsuccessfully tried to get Ollen to 553 00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:57,080 Speaker 1: admit that women were supposed to have the option of 554 00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:02,600 Speaker 1: at home treatment Alva. Cummins made another motion. He asked 555 00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:06,040 Speaker 1: for a directed verdict. A directed verdict is ordered by 556 00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:08,640 Speaker 1: a trial judge when the judge believes that there is 557 00:38:08,719 --> 00:38:11,920 Speaker 1: only one reasonable decision that a jury could make based 558 00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:16,040 Speaker 1: on the evidence presented. In this case, Cummen said, quote, 559 00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:19,120 Speaker 1: we contend as a matter of law that doctor Carney 560 00:38:19,200 --> 00:38:22,359 Speaker 1: was within his authority and that there is no cause here. 561 00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:26,320 Speaker 1: Dean Kelly shot back that doctor Kearney was not within 562 00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:30,160 Speaker 1: his authority. In fact, Kelly said Carney had violated the 563 00:38:30,200 --> 00:38:33,840 Speaker 1: Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution and Article two, section 564 00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:37,799 Speaker 1: sixteen of the Michigan Constitution, both of which declared that 565 00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:42,200 Speaker 1: no person shall be quote deprived of life, liberty, or 566 00:38:42,239 --> 00:38:46,640 Speaker 1: property without due process of law. The jury had been 567 00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:50,959 Speaker 1: absent for these arguments. Now Judge ONEA summoned them back 568 00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:54,799 Speaker 1: in and made his ruling on the motion. This is 569 00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:58,279 Speaker 1: a very important case, he said, and involved some very 570 00:38:58,360 --> 00:39:01,920 Speaker 1: important legal principles. Did the state have the right to 571 00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:05,200 Speaker 1: police its citizens for the sake of public health? Jooney 572 00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:10,200 Speaker 1: believed it did. Within the statute. Joanne said, the local 573 00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:14,360 Speaker 1: health officer had the powers and acted within his authority 574 00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:16,920 Speaker 1: at the time. He did what it is claimed in 575 00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:20,800 Speaker 1: this case that he did do given that MONEE concluded, 576 00:39:21,480 --> 00:39:25,840 Speaker 1: you will, therefore, by direction of the Court, return a 577 00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:31,040 Speaker 1: verdict here of no cause of action. Nina had lost 578 00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:35,600 Speaker 1: her case. She was ordered to pay the defendants legal fees, 579 00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:39,120 Speaker 1: and her name was splashed across newspapers around the state, 580 00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:43,960 Speaker 1: but even still she was not ready to admit defeat. 581 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,879 Speaker 1: A little over a year later, on June twenty third, 582 00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:53,000 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty one, her lawyers submitted an appeal, citing thirty 583 00:39:53,040 --> 00:39:57,200 Speaker 1: six errors they believed Judge Monette had committed during the trial. 584 00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:00,920 Speaker 1: By this point, Nina had more on her mind than 585 00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:05,000 Speaker 1: just her legal case. Five months after the trial, her 586 00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:09,000 Speaker 1: estranged husband, Claire Rock, was shot and killed in Detroit 587 00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:11,520 Speaker 1: by the angry ex husband of a girl he was seeing. 588 00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:16,200 Speaker 1: In April nineteen twenty one, Nina married again, this time 589 00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:20,439 Speaker 1: to Norman Hess, a plumber from Saginaw. On June twenty ninth, 590 00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:24,239 Speaker 1: six days after her lawyers filed the appeal, Nina gave 591 00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:27,399 Speaker 1: birth to a son, who she named John, after both 592 00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:34,600 Speaker 1: of her grandfather's. Heartbreakingly, John died only hours later. In December, 593 00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:39,040 Speaker 1: the Michigan Supreme Court issued their ruling on Nina's appeal, 594 00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:45,880 Speaker 1: They found in her favor. Justice Grandfellows, writing the opinion 595 00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:50,279 Speaker 1: for the majority, declared that quote, doctor Carney had the 596 00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:54,120 Speaker 1: power to make the examination, but he could not exercise 597 00:40:54,280 --> 00:40:57,480 Speaker 1: such power unless he had reasonable grounds to believe that 598 00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:01,520 Speaker 1: plaintiff was infected. Such good faith on his part was 599 00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:05,359 Speaker 1: a necessary prerequisite to the exercise of the power. I 600 00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:08,880 Speaker 1: am unable to follow the contention of defendant's counsel that 601 00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:13,960 Speaker 1: this record establishes such good faith. The Supreme Court overturned 602 00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:17,560 Speaker 1: Juanna's ruling and ordered a new trial for Nina's case. 603 00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:22,680 Speaker 1: This was a victory for Nina, to be sure, but 604 00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:26,680 Speaker 1: in a dark turn, Nina's victory may very well have 605 00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:30,640 Speaker 1: turned out to be other women's loss, because it set 606 00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:38,480 Speaker 1: a dangerous precedent. To explain how Rock v. Carney impacted 607 00:41:38,520 --> 00:41:42,240 Speaker 1: future American plan cases, we have to return to Justice 608 00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:47,080 Speaker 1: Fellows's Michigan Supreme Court opinion. Fellows had found that Carne 609 00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:50,440 Speaker 1: did not have reasonable grounds to examine Nina, but he 610 00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:54,120 Speaker 1: hadn't objected to the law that granted Carne his powers. 611 00:41:54,800 --> 00:41:57,960 Speaker 1: The power exists in the boards of health. Fellows wrote 612 00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:02,400 Speaker 1: to quarantine persons in affected with these diseases and to 613 00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:05,719 Speaker 1: make such examination as the nature of the disease requires 614 00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:09,720 Speaker 1: to determine its presence. This finding would later be cited 615 00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:13,640 Speaker 1: in future cases to justify the state's power to examine 616 00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:17,880 Speaker 1: and quarantine people, and there would be many such future 617 00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:22,879 Speaker 1: cases because the American Plan was far from over. Even 618 00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:26,320 Speaker 1: though it had begun as a wartime program, the Plan's 619 00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:31,800 Speaker 1: architects and many Americans wanted the program to continue after 620 00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:36,440 Speaker 1: the war ended in November nineteen eighteen. In April nineteen nineteen, 621 00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:40,120 Speaker 1: the Michigan State legislature passed a bill that, per the 622 00:42:40,160 --> 00:42:43,160 Speaker 1: Detroit Free Press, empowers the state Board of Health to 623 00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:46,399 Speaker 1: continue what it has been doing throughout the war. By 624 00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:50,759 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty one, every US state had passed similar legislation. 625 00:42:51,719 --> 00:42:55,400 Speaker 1: There was some opposition to the Plan. Opponents believed that 626 00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:59,040 Speaker 1: the oppressive, sexist enforcement of the Plan laws were harming 627 00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:01,680 Speaker 1: women more than they were helping them, but there were 628 00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:05,920 Speaker 1: limits to this opposition. Take this quote from journalist H. L. Menkin, 629 00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:10,280 Speaker 1: a prominent Plan critic. Quote, if patrols go out after 630 00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:13,480 Speaker 1: suspicious women in the manner indicated by the press accounts, 631 00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:18,840 Speaker 1: a great many innocent women will be abominably persecuted. Many 632 00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:22,399 Speaker 1: of these opponents saw no problem with sex workers being 633 00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:26,480 Speaker 1: locked up without due process. Their concern was reserved for 634 00:43:26,880 --> 00:43:30,759 Speaker 1: innocent women. Another group who had begun to speak out 635 00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:35,080 Speaker 1: against the plan was the American Medical Association. The AMA 636 00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:39,920 Speaker 1: opposed government intervention into healthcare. It was their lobbying, not 637 00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:43,600 Speaker 1: the lobbying of people concerned about the sexist and unconstitutional 638 00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:46,840 Speaker 1: aspects of the Plan, that would convince the federal government 639 00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:50,720 Speaker 1: to step back from funding the plan. In December nineteen twenty, 640 00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:55,279 Speaker 1: Congress declined to provide money for Plan programs. But just 641 00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:58,359 Speaker 1: because the federal government no longer funded the plan did 642 00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:02,280 Speaker 1: not mean that it was dead. States and cities still 643 00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:07,120 Speaker 1: had their own plan laws, however, reduced funding, and during 644 00:44:07,160 --> 00:44:11,880 Speaker 1: the Great Depression, funding dried up almost entirely. Did disincentivize 645 00:44:11,880 --> 00:44:16,920 Speaker 1: some institutions and states. Bay's City Detention Hospital, for example, 646 00:44:17,239 --> 00:44:19,520 Speaker 1: was shut down in nineteen twenty one due to a 647 00:44:19,600 --> 00:44:23,080 Speaker 1: lack of funding as well as concerns about the hospital's 648 00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:28,360 Speaker 1: body accounting practices, but soon the money would return. In 649 00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:32,000 Speaker 1: the late nineteen thirties, a new Surgeon General, Thomas Perrin, 650 00:44:32,320 --> 00:44:37,120 Speaker 1: revitalized the federal conversation about STI prevention. In May nineteen 651 00:44:37,160 --> 00:44:41,359 Speaker 1: thirty eight, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Venereal Disease Control Act, 652 00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:46,000 Speaker 1: granting millions of dollars of federal funding for STI investigations 653 00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:49,560 Speaker 1: and control. The advent of World War II in nineteen 654 00:44:49,640 --> 00:44:54,360 Speaker 1: thirty nine further strengthened federal resolve to fund STI prevention programs. 655 00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:57,680 Speaker 1: Even before the United States entered the war in December 656 00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:01,360 Speaker 1: nineteen forty one, measures were being taken to reinvigorate the 657 00:45:01,360 --> 00:45:06,400 Speaker 1: American Plan. In spring nineteen forty one, a new federal agency, 658 00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:11,080 Speaker 1: the Social Protection Division, was born. Tasked with getting local 659 00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:15,600 Speaker 1: officials to enforce their Plan laws. The SPD acquired thirty 660 00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:19,880 Speaker 1: abandoned civilian conservation core camps and turned them into rapid 661 00:45:19,920 --> 00:45:24,760 Speaker 1: treatment centers. These centers functioned much like the detention hospitals 662 00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:28,360 Speaker 1: of the earlier Plan, and they were filled almost exclusively 663 00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:33,239 Speaker 1: with women, thousands of them. And once again, even when 664 00:45:33,280 --> 00:45:37,080 Speaker 1: the original impetus for the centers the war ended, the 665 00:45:37,120 --> 00:45:42,359 Speaker 1: programs continued. But now the plan faced a new obstacle, 666 00:45:42,880 --> 00:45:49,200 Speaker 1: one more powerful than any political or moral objection. Antibiotics penicillin, 667 00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:53,120 Speaker 1: discovered in nineteen twenty nine, could effectively and quickly treat 668 00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:57,920 Speaker 1: both syphilis and gonorrhea. The antibiotic had initially been difficult 669 00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:01,680 Speaker 1: to mass produce, and then even once this problem was solved, 670 00:46:01,840 --> 00:46:05,600 Speaker 1: distribution was restricted in order to prioritize military use during 671 00:46:05,640 --> 00:46:10,440 Speaker 1: the war, but in April nineteen forty five, restrictions on 672 00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:15,480 Speaker 1: penicillin were removed. Given the widespread access to fast treatment, 673 00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:20,239 Speaker 1: it became harder for officials to justify extended quarantines. In 674 00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:24,880 Speaker 1: nineteen forty six, Congress declined to fund the Social Protection Division, 675 00:46:25,680 --> 00:46:30,560 Speaker 1: but still the American Plan would not die. It would, 676 00:46:30,719 --> 00:46:35,960 Speaker 1: in fact, outlive Nina McCall hesse after the Michigan Supreme 677 00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:39,719 Speaker 1: Court overturned Judge Ononai's ruling and granted Nina the right 678 00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:43,280 Speaker 1: to a new trial. Nina filed suit again in January 679 00:46:43,360 --> 00:46:47,440 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty two, but for unknown reasons, she never pursued 680 00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:50,600 Speaker 1: the suit, and the case was dismissed in November nineteen 681 00:46:50,640 --> 00:46:55,440 Speaker 1: twenty five. Nina and her husband Norman lived a quiet 682 00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:59,560 Speaker 1: life after the death of her baby John. Nina had 683 00:46:59,600 --> 00:47:03,399 Speaker 1: no more biological children, but she and Norman did raise 684 00:47:03,480 --> 00:47:08,200 Speaker 1: her orphaned cousins. Tragically, these two children also died young 685 00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:13,920 Speaker 1: one aged twenty the other nineteen. Nina herself died of 686 00:47:13,960 --> 00:47:17,320 Speaker 1: a brain tumor on July twenty first, nineteen fifty seven, 687 00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:22,520 Speaker 1: age fifty six. She is buried in Floral Gardens Cemetery, 688 00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:27,480 Speaker 1: a five minute drive from Bay City Detention Hospital. By 689 00:47:27,560 --> 00:47:31,240 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven, the year that Nina died, the world 690 00:47:31,320 --> 00:47:34,960 Speaker 1: had changed in many ways since her detention in nineteen eighteen, 691 00:47:35,560 --> 00:47:39,960 Speaker 1: but the American Plan was still in full force in 692 00:47:40,040 --> 00:47:44,600 Speaker 1: cities as varied as Denver, Salt Lake City, and Terre Haute, Indiana, 693 00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:49,360 Speaker 1: among many others. Women were detained and examined for STIs 694 00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:55,080 Speaker 1: under Plan laws well into the nineteen seventies. The endurance 695 00:47:55,120 --> 00:47:57,680 Speaker 1: of this program belied the fact that it was a 696 00:47:57,840 --> 00:48:02,600 Speaker 1: failure in controlling STIs. During World War One, the only 697 00:48:02,680 --> 00:48:06,280 Speaker 1: thing that had actually worked to reduce STIs amongst soldiers 698 00:48:06,719 --> 00:48:12,440 Speaker 1: was chemical prophylaxis, prophylaxis administered not to female sex workers 699 00:48:12,920 --> 00:48:17,080 Speaker 1: but to the soldiers. But ultimately, the American Plan was 700 00:48:17,160 --> 00:48:22,719 Speaker 1: never really about reducing STIs. It was about controlling women's sexuality. 701 00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:27,640 Speaker 1: When it became clear that penicillin could revolutionize treatment, some 702 00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:32,920 Speaker 1: American Plan officials were upset. One high ranking official, Walter 703 00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:37,320 Speaker 1: Clark said in nineteen forty four, quote the venereal disease 704 00:48:37,360 --> 00:48:40,120 Speaker 1: problem cannot be solved by the fine them and treat 705 00:48:40,160 --> 00:48:45,880 Speaker 1: them method alone. The New York Herald Tribune described Clark's conclusions, quote, 706 00:48:46,320 --> 00:48:49,600 Speaker 1: more stringent methods must be employed by the authorities, he 707 00:48:49,680 --> 00:48:54,960 Speaker 1: said in repressing the tendency to sex promiscuity. More than 708 00:48:55,000 --> 00:49:00,000 Speaker 1: three decades later, in nineteen seventy seven, a Monterey County, California, 709 00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:03,120 Speaker 1: police commander spoke to the Los Angeles Times about the 710 00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:06,680 Speaker 1: county's practice of forcing sex workers to get STI tests. 711 00:49:07,440 --> 00:49:12,640 Speaker 1: His message was stark, quote Venereal disease was not our concern. 712 00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:17,560 Speaker 1: Cleaning up the streets was our concern more than anything else. 713 00:49:17,760 --> 00:49:21,200 Speaker 1: It was a harassing technique that falls within legal parameters 714 00:49:21,200 --> 00:49:23,399 Speaker 1: for the police, so that we don't have to worry 715 00:49:23,440 --> 00:49:26,640 Speaker 1: about the Civil Liberties Union or the Public Defender's Office 716 00:49:26,719 --> 00:49:31,920 Speaker 1: or somebody like that issuing a court order against us. Fortunately, 717 00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:35,880 Speaker 1: by the nineteen seventies, the civil liberties unions were beginning 718 00:49:35,880 --> 00:49:39,520 Speaker 1: to fight back. During World War II, the American Civil 719 00:49:39,560 --> 00:49:44,000 Speaker 1: Liberties Union had actually supported the plan, but in nineteen 720 00:49:44,080 --> 00:49:48,239 Speaker 1: seventy four ACLU attorney Deborah Hinkle, working in tandem with 721 00:49:48,280 --> 00:49:52,120 Speaker 1: the sex workers rights organization COYOTE, filed suit against the 722 00:49:52,160 --> 00:49:55,239 Speaker 1: City of San Francisco for their practice of holding women 723 00:49:55,360 --> 00:49:59,520 Speaker 1: arrested for prostitution or related offenses for seventy two hours 724 00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:03,800 Speaker 1: and sssibly examining them for STIs. A month later, a 725 00:50:03,920 --> 00:50:08,760 Speaker 1: San Francisco Superior Court judge issued an injunction halting enforcement 726 00:50:08,800 --> 00:50:12,600 Speaker 1: of this practice. Hinkle filed a similar suit in Alameda 727 00:50:12,640 --> 00:50:17,640 Speaker 1: County with similar results. County officials appealed. The director of 728 00:50:17,719 --> 00:50:23,120 Speaker 1: California's state Health Department spoke out against these enforced holds, saying, quote, 729 00:50:23,360 --> 00:50:27,160 Speaker 1: the Department of Health cannot support actions disguised as preventive 730 00:50:27,200 --> 00:50:31,120 Speaker 1: health measures that are actually intended to achieve law enforcement objectives, 731 00:50:31,640 --> 00:50:35,600 Speaker 1: particularly when they appear to constitute a denial of basic rights. 732 00:50:36,160 --> 00:50:39,640 Speaker 1: The California Court of Appeal agreed, saying that the practice 733 00:50:39,680 --> 00:50:44,160 Speaker 1: was discriminatory. Men who were arrested for soliciting sex workers 734 00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:50,080 Speaker 1: were not similarly held and examined. Alameda County, uninterested in 735 00:50:50,160 --> 00:50:56,560 Speaker 1: detaining men, ended their practice soon after, but as usual, 736 00:50:57,360 --> 00:51:03,600 Speaker 1: like a persistent infection, perhaps the American plan kept popping back. Today, 737 00:51:03,960 --> 00:51:07,520 Speaker 1: the laws that enabled the Plan. Laws that allow state 738 00:51:07,560 --> 00:51:11,640 Speaker 1: officials to determine which diseases are suitable for quarantine are 739 00:51:11,719 --> 00:51:15,040 Speaker 1: still on the books of every single state. Most of 740 00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:18,960 Speaker 1: these laws include provisions that allow for the examination of 741 00:51:19,000 --> 00:51:25,560 Speaker 1: people reasonably suspected of carrying quarantinable disease. Of course, there 742 00:51:25,640 --> 00:51:30,040 Speaker 1: are legitimate cases of quarantine or other restrictive measures employed 743 00:51:30,040 --> 00:51:32,960 Speaker 1: for public health reasons. That's why I think it's so 744 00:51:33,080 --> 00:51:38,000 Speaker 1: important to distinguish the American Plan from other public health initiatives, because, 745 00:51:38,200 --> 00:51:40,560 Speaker 1: at the end of the day, as that Monterey police 746 00:51:40,560 --> 00:51:44,759 Speaker 1: officer said, it was not truly about public health. If 747 00:51:44,760 --> 00:51:48,799 Speaker 1: government officials wanted to control STIs, there were myriad other 748 00:51:48,880 --> 00:51:52,560 Speaker 1: options that did not involve imprisoning women without due process. 749 00:51:53,480 --> 00:51:56,239 Speaker 1: But none of these options would have allowed officials to 750 00:51:56,280 --> 00:52:00,960 Speaker 1: police women's bodies and behavior like the American Planned. As 751 00:52:01,000 --> 00:52:04,400 Speaker 1: Scott Stern writes in his superb book about both Nina's 752 00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:09,160 Speaker 1: case and the Plan's overall history, quote, the plans legacy 753 00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:13,319 Speaker 1: is not merely these laws and these precedents. It is 754 00:52:13,360 --> 00:52:17,520 Speaker 1: the philosophy they helped to cement that women and promiscuous 755 00:52:17,520 --> 00:52:21,120 Speaker 1: people are dangerous and morally inferior, that they need to 756 00:52:21,160 --> 00:52:26,000 Speaker 1: be stopped, locked up, and reformed. This philosophy and the 757 00:52:26,040 --> 00:52:30,200 Speaker 1: practice of policing the sex lives of stigmatized groups, especially women, 758 00:52:30,640 --> 00:52:35,640 Speaker 1: has a long history. This philosophy endures to this day. 759 00:52:37,120 --> 00:52:40,719 Speaker 1: That's the story of Rock v. Carney. Join me after 760 00:52:40,760 --> 00:52:43,759 Speaker 1: the break to learn about one more recent recurrence of 761 00:52:43,840 --> 00:52:52,920 Speaker 1: planned philosophy and how people fought back. In late nineteen 762 00:52:52,960 --> 00:52:56,520 Speaker 1: eighty five, a poll found that a majority of Americans 763 00:52:56,680 --> 00:53:02,680 Speaker 1: supported quarantining those with AIDS. Legislators across the country began 764 00:53:02,800 --> 00:53:06,319 Speaker 1: introducing bills calling for laws that empowered the state to 765 00:53:06,440 --> 00:53:12,440 Speaker 1: test anyone suspected of having HIV or AIDS and quarantining them, 766 00:53:12,719 --> 00:53:17,240 Speaker 1: but support for these measures was not unanimous. Quickly, people 767 00:53:17,280 --> 00:53:23,200 Speaker 1: began fighting back in opposing quarantine laws. Physicians, scholars, and 768 00:53:23,320 --> 00:53:27,280 Speaker 1: activists turned to the past to show how quarantines wrongly 769 00:53:27,320 --> 00:53:32,640 Speaker 1: applied were not only ineffective but dangerous. They wrote about leprosy, 770 00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:37,600 Speaker 1: about yellow fever, about tuberculosis. They also wrote about the 771 00:53:37,640 --> 00:53:42,280 Speaker 1: American Plan. The language of these AIDS bills, wrote scholar 772 00:53:42,320 --> 00:53:46,279 Speaker 1: and activist Beth Bergmann in nineteen eighty seven, is strikingly 773 00:53:46,320 --> 00:53:50,480 Speaker 1: similar and frequently identical, to that of syphilis quarantine and 774 00:53:50,520 --> 00:53:54,480 Speaker 1: testing provisions written nearly a century ago, where medicine and 775 00:53:54,560 --> 00:53:59,080 Speaker 1: science were lacking citizens, legislatures and courts based their actions 776 00:53:59,120 --> 00:54:03,560 Speaker 1: on cultural stare rieotypes. Fortunately, though there were several cases 777 00:54:03,560 --> 00:54:07,879 Speaker 1: of AIDS quarantines, no mass quarantine movement or policy ever 778 00:54:07,960 --> 00:54:12,520 Speaker 1: came to be. The historian Alan Brandt also drew connections 779 00:54:12,520 --> 00:54:16,080 Speaker 1: between the past and the present. In nineteen eighty five, 780 00:54:16,239 --> 00:54:20,320 Speaker 1: Brandt published his book No Magic Bullet, A Social History 781 00:54:20,360 --> 00:54:23,360 Speaker 1: of Venereal Disease in the United States since eighteen eighty, 782 00:54:23,880 --> 00:54:27,560 Speaker 1: which explored the cultural contexts which shaped public health approaches 783 00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:32,080 Speaker 1: to STIs. Two years later, he reissued the book, now 784 00:54:32,160 --> 00:54:36,440 Speaker 1: with a new chapter addressing AIDS. Brandt emphasized the danger 785 00:54:36,520 --> 00:54:41,040 Speaker 1: of connecting disease with morality, writing that quote, so long 786 00:54:41,120 --> 00:54:44,359 Speaker 1: as disease is equated with sin, that there can be 787 00:54:44,719 --> 00:54:49,719 Speaker 1: no magic bullet. After the publication of Brant's book, many 788 00:54:49,800 --> 00:54:52,839 Speaker 1: AIDS activists reached out to him to learn more about 789 00:54:52,840 --> 00:54:56,800 Speaker 1: the history of STI policy in the United States. Brant 790 00:54:56,840 --> 00:55:01,440 Speaker 1: was touched by this effort, but also unsurprised. In his words, 791 00:55:01,520 --> 00:55:05,000 Speaker 1: quote history does provide us with a way of understanding 792 00:55:05,080 --> 00:55:08,880 Speaker 1: and approaching the present. I have been reflecting on this 793 00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:12,960 Speaker 1: quote while writing this episode. I consider myself decently well 794 00:55:13,080 --> 00:55:17,480 Speaker 1: versed in, or at least obsessed with American history, but 795 00:55:17,600 --> 00:55:21,359 Speaker 1: I had never heard of the American Plan. Neither had 796 00:55:21,400 --> 00:55:24,160 Speaker 1: Scott Stern, the author of the Trials of Nina McCall, 797 00:55:24,560 --> 00:55:27,400 Speaker 1: before a professor mentioned it offhandedly in one of his 798 00:55:27,520 --> 00:55:32,040 Speaker 1: undergraduate history classes. I am grateful to Stern and to 799 00:55:32,120 --> 00:55:35,799 Speaker 1: all other historians of the plan for illuminating this dark 800 00:55:35,880 --> 00:55:39,719 Speaker 1: chapter in our past. Without learning about it, how can 801 00:55:39,760 --> 00:55:44,320 Speaker 1: we ever fully understand our present. Thank you for listening 802 00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:47,640 Speaker 1: to History on Trial. My main sources for this episode 803 00:55:47,640 --> 00:55:51,040 Speaker 1: were Scott W. Stern's book The Trials of Nina McCall, 804 00:55:51,719 --> 00:55:55,520 Speaker 1: Sex Surveillance and the decades long government plan to imprison 805 00:55:55,719 --> 00:56:01,120 Speaker 1: promiscuous Women, and Alan M. Brandt's book, Oh Magic Bullet, 806 00:56:01,520 --> 00:56:04,640 Speaker 1: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States 807 00:56:04,719 --> 00:56:08,840 Speaker 1: since eighteen eighty. Special thanks to Scott Stern for answering 808 00:56:08,840 --> 00:56:12,160 Speaker 1: my questions about Nina's story, as well as providing some 809 00:56:12,320 --> 00:56:16,000 Speaker 1: excellent photos which you can see on our instagram at 810 00:56:16,080 --> 00:56:19,600 Speaker 1: History on Trial. For a full bibliography, as well as 811 00:56:19,640 --> 00:56:22,839 Speaker 1: a transcript of this episode with citations, please visit our 812 00:56:22,840 --> 00:56:30,040 Speaker 1: website History on Trial podcast dot com. History on Trial 813 00:56:30,239 --> 00:56:33,960 Speaker 1: is written and hosted by me Mira Hayward. The show 814 00:56:34,000 --> 00:56:37,760 Speaker 1: is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer 815 00:56:37,840 --> 00:56:43,480 Speaker 1: Trevor Young and executive producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams, Matt Frederick, 816 00:56:43,680 --> 00:56:47,200 Speaker 1: and Mira Hayward. Learn more about the show at History 817 00:56:47,239 --> 00:56:51,200 Speaker 1: on Trial podcast dot com and follow us on Instagram 818 00:56:51,480 --> 00:56:56,280 Speaker 1: at History on Trial and on Twitter at Underscore History 819 00:56:56,320 --> 00:57:00,719 Speaker 1: on Trial. Find more podcasts from iHeartRadio by visiting the 820 00:57:00,760 --> 00:57:04,839 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 821 00:57:04,880 --> 00:57:05,640 Speaker 1: favorite shows.