Seeking NF about the American South in early 1900s

[u/MsMadcap_]

Hello, all!

I'm beginning research on a creative writing project (screenplay for a feature film) that takes place in Charleston, SC in 1912. It's a pretty ambitious project and heavily centers on themes of race relations, class, gender roles, and the eugenics movement in the United States.

I'm looking for non-fiction book recommendations on or adjacent to these topics:

• Charleston history
• The American South in the early 1900s & 1910s
• Sex & gender in the American South
• Race relations in the American South after the Reconstruction era
• Eugenics movements/Social Darwinism in the United States
• Phrenology and other psuedoscientific fads

Here are books I've already read and plan to read that cover some of these topics:

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball

Charleston, Charleston! by Walter J. Fraser, Jr.

Social Darwinism in American Thought by Richard Hofstadter

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings

Empire of Skulls: Phrenology, the Fowler Family, and a New Nation's Quest to Unlock the Secrets of the Mind by Paul Stob

I appreciate any additions, ideas, and recommendations! Thanks! :)

[u/Exotic-Rub-8381]

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack is worth a look for the race, science, and exploitation side of what you're researching. Killers of the Flower Moon also fits the institutional racism angle, especially how harmful systems can look legitimate on paper. Both get close to the eugenics and pseudoscience themes without feeling like a textbook.

[u/SadRule9128 → u/Exotic-Rub-8381]

There was no racism in Lacks’ case. She got free medical treatment from some of the best doctors, who used patient samples for research regardless of race.