206–207: “On October 6, 1944, Abe . . . ‘gossip for inquisitive women in a political setup. . . .’ ”: Letter from Abe Waldauer to E. W. McGovern, October 6, 1944.
207: “A desire to cater to adoptive parents . . . a large one”: The Commercial Appeal, December 19, 1948, “Memphis Exports Twin Babies—And Awakens To A Controversy”; letter written by Georgia Tann to her Board of Directors, c. 1938.
208: “‘We never tell . . . interference and confusion’”: The Commercial Appeal, December 19, 1948, “Memphis ‘Exports’ Twin Babies—And Awakens a Controversy.”
208: “Contemporary adoptive parents . . . of why it occurs”: Interview with Pam Hasegawa, September, 2006.
208: “But over five decades later . . . ‘or the threat of blackmail’”: Associated Press, August 24, 1996, “Judge OK’s Opening of Records.”
209: “Another is that . . . was Alabama, not Tennessee”: Colby, p. 73.
209: “‘Secrecy in adoption does’ . . . published in 1992”: Aigner, p. 33.
209: “In 1928, three years . . . for her adoptees”: The Commercial Appeal, September 29, 1939, “Finding Parents For Babies Is Task Of Children’s Home”; The Commercial Appeal, January 28, 1948, “Adoption Law Defended By Miss Tann.”
209: “Nine years later . . . the practice in Tennessee”: Public Acts 1937, Ch. 310, Sec. 1; The Commercial Appeal, September 29, 1939, “Finding Parents For Babies Is Task Of Children’s Home.”
210: “But her purported . . . have sounded good”: Letter from Georgia Tann to D. J. Gallert, April 23, 1935.
211: “By 1920, laws . . . Minnesota and New York”: Carp 1998, p. 51.
211: “Ethical social workers . . . for historical purposes”: Carp 1998, p. 52.
211: “She kept original birth certificates . . . her adoptees”: Interview with Virginia Simmons, 1992.
211: “Ethical social workers . . . copies of their original birth certificates”: Carp 1998, p. 55.
211: “Workers like Maud Morlock . . . ‘who his parents were’”: Morlock, p. 169.
211–212: “But by 1960 . . . find their families”: Interview with Annette Baran, May 12, 1998; for discussion of growing reluctance of Children’s Home Society of Washington social workers to give adoptees information about their identities, see Carp 1992, pp. 40-41.
212: “She couldn’t threaten . . . to everyone in their home towns”: Interview with Robert Taylor, 1993; Nashville Tennessean, October 26, 1950, “Georgia Tann Campaigned Against Baby Racket.”
212–213: “In 1955 and 1956 . . . following her lead”: Kefauver Hearings.
213: “A team very similar . . . had been stillborn”: Solinger, p. 176.
213: “‘Runners,’ who scouted . . . ‘a few bucks?’”: Lake, p. 44.
213: “Operations of a . . . relinquishing their children”: Solinger, pp. 169-170.
213: “If their babies had . . . require greater care”: Solinger, p. 170.
213: “The committee also . . . for a poker debt”: Mitler, p. 91.
213–214: “A Chicago woman. . . . as bonus”: Mitler p. 91.
214: “A child was . . . to El Paso”: Ibid.
214: “Less than one-third . . . accredited agencies”: New York Times Magazine, April 2, 1950, p. 48, “Adoption Problems.”
214: “Pregnant women who relinquished . . . and medical care”: Solinger, p. 177.
214: “To Katherine B. Oettinger . . . wrote in 1958”: Oettinger, pp. 123-128.
214–215: “Ten years earlier . . . ‘vacuum we have left’”: Solinger, p. 160.
215: “And the black market . . . in a new town”: Lake, p. 44.
215: “Ethical professionals could . . . imitating them”: Interview with Annette Baron, May 12, 1998.
215–216: “Ernest Mitler, special counsel . . . in Seattle had closed”: Mitler, p. 94.
216: “But the Traveler’s Aid . . . and other areas”: Solinger, p. 159.
216: “Ethical social workers . . . information about their roots”: Interview with Annette Baron, May 12, 1998.
217: “Composed of one thousand parents . . . California legislature herself”: Interview with Lorene Cole, 1992.
217: “Passed in 1949 . . . none at all”: Interview with Lorene Cole, 1992; Nashville Ten nessean, September 22, 1950, “State Had No Right To Press Probe, Shoaf Says.”
217–218: “‘I bought into . . . request made sense,’ she said”: Interview with Annette Baron, October 16, 1998.
13. The Fallout
219: “‘I remember looking . . . without knowing it’”: Sorosky, p. 109.
220: “‘I was forever . . . but who is it?’”: Sorosky, p. 133.
220: “‘I used to cry . . . to find her’”: Sorosky, pp. 116-117.
220: “‘I used to fantasize . . . from all angles’”: Sorosky, p. 117.
221: “‘. . . I worried about . . . my biological parents’”: Sorosky, p. 132.
221: “‘I have an . . . my biological relatives’”: Sorosky, p. 127.
222: “‘I am very . . . us have no lineage’”: Sorosky, p. 134.
222: “‘I have discovered . . . on to future generations’”: Sorosky, p. 127.
222–223: “Testifying before a . . . ‘well still be alive’”: F. F. Greenman Jr., Testimony before Connecticut Select Committee on Children, February 16, 2006.
223: “‘Some of the kids . . . their original parents are’”: Krementz, p. 69.
224–225: “Years later, I . . . ‘to be proud of ’”: CBS News, 60 Minutes, originally aired January 12, 1992, “Black Market Babies,” p. 7 transcript.
225: “As the twelve-year . . . are ‘ridiculous’”: Krementz, p. 69.
226: “Scores of Georgia Tann . . . identities and pasts”: The Commercial Appeal, October 28, 1993, “Speakers Protest Secrecy in Tenn. Adoption Records”; The Jackson Sun, October 28, 1993, “For 60 Years, No Family, No Nothing.”
14. The Beginning of the End
231: “Hundreds of adoptees . . . ‘no parents, no nothing’”: The Commercial Appeal, October 28, 1993, “Speakers Protest Secrecy in Tenn. Adoption Records”; Jackson Sun, October 28, 1993, “For 60 Years, No Family, No Nothing.”
232: “On May 18 . . . a standing ovation”: Nashville Banner, May 18, 1995, “House Unanimously Changes State Adoption Laws.”
232: “Records would . . . indirect victims”: Tennessee Public Laws 1995, ch. 532, sec. 1 (amending T.C.A. § 36-1-127) & sec. 20. The effective date for the pre-1951 adoptees was later delayed six months.
232–233: “Adoptee Carolyn Godeau . . . ‘having a baby!’”: The Commercial Appeal, July 24, 1996, “Most Wonderful Thing in the World: Mother and Daughter, Separated at Birth, Are Reunited.”
233: “Pat Robertson, who . . . increase in abortions”: PBS Online Newshour, January 15, 1997, “Opening Adoption Records,” transcript.
233: “The adoptees consistently lost . . . sealing records”: Alma Society, Inc. v. Mellon, 601 F.2d 1225 (2nd Cir. 1979), cert. den., 444 U.S. 995 (1979); In re Assalone, 512 A.2d 1383 (R.I. 1986); Bradey v. Children’s Bureau, 274 S.E.2d 418 (S.C. 1981); Matter of Dixon, 116 Mich. App. 763, 323 N.W.2d 549 (1982); Kirsch v. Parker, 383 So.2d 384 (La. 1980); Massey v. Parker, 369 So.2d 1310 (La. 1979); Application of Maples, 563 S.W.2d 760 (Mo. 1978); Matter of Spinks, 32 N.C. App. 422, 232 S.E.2d 479 (1977); Mills v. Atlantic City Dept. of Vital Statistics, 148 N.J. Super. 302, 372 A.2d 646 (1977).
234: “The veto had been invoked . . . would utilize the veto as well”: New South Wales Law Reform Commission, Report 69, Review of the Adoption Information Act 1990, pp. 40, 44 (1992).
234–235: “Tennessee’s contact veto . . . contact their parents”: T.C.A. §§ 36-1-128, 36- 1-132 (1999).
235: “In writing the new law . . . birth parents”: T.C.A. § 36-127(e)(2) (1999).
235: “Unsealing birth records . . . Court of Appeals”: American Center for Law and Justice, Plaintiffs’ Memorandum in Support of Application for Preliminary Injunction, p. 24, Do
e v. Sundquist, Case No. 3-96-0599 (U.S.D.C., M.D. Tenn.), quoting Linda F. M. v. Dept. of Health of City of New York, 418 N.E. 1302 (N.Y. 1981).
235: “Abe Waldauer’s attorney’s assertion . . . ‘real [adoptive] parents’”: Letter from Abe Waldauer to Georgia Tann, December 16, 1937.
236–237: “But ‘very few . . . call home.’”: F. F. Greenman Jr., Letter to the Editor, New York Law Journal, August 21, 2000.
237: “desired ‘privacy’”: F. F. Greenman Jr., et al., Brief of Amici Curiæ Teresa Evetts Horton, pp. 30-32 (10/31/1996); Doe v. Sundquist, Case No. 96-6197 (U.S.C.A., 6th Cir.); Carp 1998, p. 104.
237–238: “The very opposite . . . that surrounded it”: F. F. Greenman Jr., et al., Brief of Amici Curiæ Teresa Evetts Horton, pp. 40-42 (10/31/1996); Doe v. Sundquist, Case No. 96-6197 (U.S.C.A., 6th Cir.); see also F. F. Greenman Jr., Affidavit sworn to July 17, 1996, Doe v. Sundquist, Case No. 3-96-0599 (U.S.D.C. M.D. Tenn.).
238: “On August 23, 1996 . . . accessing their records”: Doe v. Sundquist, 943 F. Supp. 886 (M.D. Tenn., 1996).
238: “Then on February 11, 1997 . . . dissolving the stay”: Doe v. Sundquist, 106 F.3d 702 (6th Cir., 1997).
238: “To adoptees’ further joy . . . federal constitutional claims”: Id., 106 F.3d at 707-708.
238: “Writing for the court . . . ‘babies are born’”: Id. at 705.
238: “Judge Engel also praised . . . ‘sound adoption system’”: Id. at 707.
238: “ACLJ attorneys asked the U.S. . . . the court refused”: Doe v. Sundquist, 522 U.S. 810 (1997).
239: “On March 26, 1997 . . . Davidson County, Tennessee”: ACLJ, Motion for Temporary Restraining Order, Doe v. Sundquist, Case No. 97C-941 (Cir. Ct., Tenn., 3/26/97).
239: “The order was granted”: Temporary Restraining Order, Doe v. Sundquist, Case No. 97C-941 (Cir. Ct., Tenn., 3/27/97).
239: “On May 2 . . . ‘or her identity’”: Memorandum and Order, Doe v. Sundquist, Case No. 97C-941 (Cir. Ct., Tenn., 5/2/97); 1997 WL 354786.
239: “ACLJ lawyers then appealed . . . (from their children.)”: Opinion, p. 12, Doe v. Sundquist, Appeal No. 01-A-01-9705-CV-00209 (Court of Appeals, Tenn., 8/24/98).
240: “‘This court battle’ . . . had written in 1996”: American Adoption Congress Newsletter, The Decree, July 1996, “Tennessee’s Open Records Battle Heats Up.”
240: “The courtroom was packed . . . the Coalition newsletter”: Tennessee Coalition for Adoption Reform Newsletter, June 1999, “Supreme Court Weighs Constitutionality of New Adoption Law,” p. 1.
240: “Issued on September 27 . . . open records”: Doe v. Sundquist, 3 S.W.3d 919 (Tenn. 1999).
240: “No longer said, . . . ‘cattle or property’”: Nashville Banner, May 18, 1995, “House Unanimously Changes State Adoption Laws.”
240: “‘Victory in Tennessee!’”: mood was euphoric: Pacer Newsletter, Fall 1999, “Victory in Tennessee!”
240: “In 1999 a group of . . . birth certificates”: 71 Del. Laws, ch. 481, sec. 5 (1998); 72 Del. Laws, ch. 1, sec. 1 (1999).
240–241: “From 1998 to 2000 Helen Hill”: Oregon Initiative Measure 58 (1998); Does v. State of Oregon, 164 Or. App. 543, 993 P.2d 822 (1999), review den., 330 Or. 138, 6 P.3d 1098 (2000), stay den., 530 U.S. 1228, 147 L. Ed. 2d 271 (2000).
241: “Bastard Nation caused . . . as well”: Alabama Acts 2000, No. 00-794.
241: “In 2004, a successful campaign . . . New Hampshire”: 2004 N. H., Ch. 99.
241: “Nine other states . . . their original birth certificates”: CO sec. 19-5-305(2)(b)(I); HI sec. 578-15(3); IN secs. 31-19-25-1 to -3 and 31-19-25; MI sec. 710.68(7); MT sec. 42-6-109(4); OH secs. 3107.39 and 3107.45-47; OK 10 Okl. St. 7505- 1.1; VT 15A VSA sec. 6-105; WA sec. 26.33.345.
241: “As of January of 2007 . . . six more states”: Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina.
Epilogue
244: “Despite the progress made since . . . in thirty-four states”: Five states have recently granted adoptees access to their original birth certificates. Adoptees in nine other states who were born before or after certain dates have also recently won access to their original birth certificates. Two states—Alaska and Kansas—have always allowed adoptees access to their original birth certificates. This amounts to a total of sixteen states that grant full or limited access, leaving thirty-four states in which adoptees’ original birth certificates remain sealed to all adoptees.
245: “Between 1997 and 2001 she . . . children by unwitting Americans”: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, November 19, 2004, “Backgrounder: Operation Broken Hearts,” pp. 1-2.
245: “including the actress Angelina Jolie . . . Galindo in 2003”: ABC News, November 19, 2004, “Adoption Scanner Gets 18 Months in Jail”; Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 17, 2003, “Feds Claim Adopted ‘Orphans’ Had Parents”; Seattle Post Examiner, November 20, 2004, “Adoption Broker Gets 18 Months”; ABC Online, June 24, 2004, “Angelina Jolie’s Adoption Agent Admits Fraud;” Reuters (Seattle), June 25, 2004, “Angelina Jolie’s Adoption Agent Admits Fraud.” There is no evidence that Jolie knew anything about Galindo’s unethical or illegal practices. There is also no evidence that Maddox was obtained from his parents through any illegal means such as fraud or deceit.
246: “Like Georgia’s birth mothers . . . giving them phony birth certificates”: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, November 19, 2004, “Backgrounder: Operation Broken Hearts,” pp. 1-2.
246: “sentenced by an American court . . . ‘the highest integrity’”: ABC News, November 19, 2004, “Adoption Scammer Gets 18 Months in Jail.”
246–247: “‘China has a’ . . . China Daily wrote in 2006”: China Daily, February 27, 2006, “Orphanage Director Jailed in Baby Selling Scam.”
247: “But in 2004 over . . . ‘or migrant workers’”: BBC News, March 22, 2003, “Chinese Babies Found in Luggage.”
247–248: “‘China often balks at . . . taking care of her,’ he said”: Los Angeles Times, January 1, 2006, “Child-Theft Racket Growing in China.”
248: “in countries where the average annual income is $1,800”: $1,800 is the average income in Russia: Way to Russia Travel and Business Guides, “Russian Stereotypes,” www.waytorussia.net, accessed December 6, 2006.
248–249: “‘Last year, nearly 23,000 . . . eye to African countries’’: New York Sun, November 2, 2006, “Madonna’s Adoption in Malawi May Lead Others to Africa.”
249: “There are often many . . . ‘gangsters in a parking lot’”: Reuters, November 12, 2001, “U. S. Hopes to Crack Down on Global Adoption Abuses.”
249: “Such criminal operations also occur . . . ‘then selling the babies’”: ABC Radio Australia, September 27, 2005, “Malaysian Police Say Baby Selling Gangs Thriving.”
249–250: “According to Interpol . . . even leave the hospital”: Belfast Telegraph, July 18, 2006, “Bulgarian Mothers Tricked Into Selling Babies.”
250: “‘What you have is’ . . . counsel to the American Adoption Congress”: Reuters, December 12, 2001, “U. S. Hopes to Crack Down on Global Adoption Abuses.”
250: “Even a perfunctory study of . . . testified against him at trial”: Interview with Mau reen Hogan, 2006.
250–251: “And on May 3, 2006 . . . ‘no one seems to care about any of this’”: Testimony Submitted by Masha Allen to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Oversight Hearing on Child Pornography on the Internet, May 3, 2006, Washington, D.C.
251: “The Hague Convention . . . and prohibition of child-buying”: Interview with F. F. Greenman Jr., 2006.
252: “But, according to Trish Maskew . . . the State Department estimated in 2003”: Ethica Website, “20/20 FAQs,” Report interview given by Trish Maskew, president of Ethica, for ABC 20/20 segment about baby trafficking in Cambodia, www.ethicanet.org/item.php?recordid=20/20FAQs&pagestyle=default.
Sources
Much of my information was derived from interviews with
people directly affected by Georgia Tann—adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents. I also spoke with dozens of pediatricians and social workers who were contemporaries of Georgia, and with twenty-four of her former neighbors. During the course of my research, I conducted over one thousand interviews.
I also drew upon newspaper and magazine articles, court records, correspondence, books, journals, and records of Senate Subcommittee Hearings. Following are the principal sources:
Aigner, Hal. Adoption in America Coming of Age. Paradigm Press, 1992.
Alabama. Alabama Acts 2000, No. 00-794.
Allen, Col. Robert S., ed. Our Fair City. New York: The Vanguard Press, 1947.
Aspero, Nell. Interviewed by S. Glenda Maness, Oral History: “Memphis Politics During the Crump Era.” Oral History Research Office, Memphis State University, interviewed on March 25, 1988.
Bates, Memphis Probate Court Judge Samuel O. Letter to William A. Shoaf, May 28, 1946.
Berebitsky, Julie. Like Our Very Own. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000.
Biles, Roger. Memphis in the Great Depression. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1986.
Brace, Charles Loring. The Dangerous Classes of New York and Twenty Years’ Work Among Them. New York: Wynkoop & Hallenback, Publishers, 1872.
Brodzinsky, David M. and Marshall D. Schechter, eds. The Psychology of Adoption. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Browning, Gordon. Papers of Governor Gordon Browning, Tennessee State Library and Archives.
Buck, Pearl S. “The Child Waiting,” Woman’s Home Companion, Vol. 28, September 1955.
Capers, Gerald M. Jr. The Biography of a River Town. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1939.
Capers, Gerald M. Jr. “Memphis—Satrapy of a Benevolent Despot,” Our Fair City, edited by Col. Robert S. Allen. New York: The Vanguard Press, 1947, pp. 211-234. Caplan, Lincoln, An Open Adoption. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1990.
Carp, E. Wayne. Family Matters. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998.
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