Charles Fremont Dight

Charles Fremont Dight (1856–1938) was a medical professor and promoter of the human eugenics movement in the U.S. state of Minnesota.^[1] Dight Avenue, a street in a South Minneapolis neighborhood was named for him.^{[2] [3]}

Biography[]

Dight was born in Mercer, Pennsylvania and graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1879. He was a health officer in Holton, Michigan from 1879-1881. He then worked at the university under professor . Dight taught at the American University of Beirut (1883-1889). Upon returning to the United States, he was the resident physician and teacher of physiology and hygiene at the Shattuck School in Faribault, Minnesota. He later taught at the medical school at Hamline University which became part of the University of Minnesota in 1907. Dight was a member of the Socialist Party of Minnesota,and was an alderman from 12th district of Minneapolis, from 1914 to 1918.^[4] During his time in office, Dight was instrumental in passing an ordinance requiring the pasteurization of milk.^[5][6] He left the Socialist Party in 1917, prior to beginning his eugenics efforts.^[6]

Dight became a proponent of eugenics during the 1920s. He founded the in 1923 and persuaded the Minnesota legislature to pass a sterilization law in 1925.^[2] When he died in 1938, he gave his estate to the University of Minnesota to create the Dight Institute for Eugenics Research.^[2] The institute was renamed the and was in operation until the late 1960s when it was divested, and later closed in the 1990s.^[2] Dight actively pursued the same type of eugenics as Nazi medicine.^[6] In 1933, Dight wrote a letter to Adolf Hitler praising his efforts to "stamp out mental inferiority."^[7]

A nine-block long street in Minneapolis was named "Dight Avenue" for him in recognition of his efforts to promote food safety. In light of his views on eugenics, a petition and movement were started in 2021 to rename the street, which received support from residents and city officials.^[8]

Publications[]

• 1935: History of the Early Stages of the Organized Eugenics Movement for Human Betterment in Minnesota
• 1936: Call for a New Social Order

References[]

External links[]

• Personal Papers of Charles F. Dight, Minnesota Historical Society