Stirring Northern Initiatives into Florida’s Backwaters, 1922 to 1930

Chapter 2 brings new information to Florida’s sparse historical record of the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act, initiated from 1922 to 1929. To provide expert administration of the program, public health nurse Laurie Jean Reid arrived, armed with a reformer’s vision augmented by a large dose of cultural chauvinism. Reid soon declared bringing federal initiatives into the state would be an uphill climb when the intertwining problems of race and poverty mired the state in its backwardness. The task of establishing authority over the predominantly black midwives and bringing health improvements to mothers rested with Reid’s team of public health nurses. They found innovative ways to bridge the communities they served with policies that addressed the threats of infection and the high infant and maternal mortality levels. Meeting these cultural and environmental challenges became not only a test of Reid’s judgment, but also a trial of how well the nurses operating under the Sheppard-Towner Act effectively imposed rules and regulations to a mostly rural population without creating racial and class tension.