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American Experience
Genetic Screening: Controlling Heredity
With every new advance in prenatal genetic screening, the ability to prevent suffering has also sparked difficult questions about what should count as “a disease” versus “a difference,” and whether we’re in danger of wiping out certain segments of the population. These fears arise, in part, because just 100 years ago, that’s exactly what a powerful movement—the eugenics movement—tried to do.
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When US inner cities erupted in violence in 1967, LBJ created a commission to investigate.
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The story of a Mississippi town’s effort to integrate its public schools in 1970.
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Revisit 1970s Boston, when court-mandated school integration unleashed racial unrest.
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Unsung scientist Mária Telkes dedicated her career to harnessing the power of the sun.