Acknowledgments  ix

Introduction  1

Part I. Transracial Adoption in the United States  

1. African American Children and Adoption, 1950–1975  27

2. The Making of the Indian Child Welfare Act, 1922–1978  59

3. "Crack Babies," Race, and Adoption Reform, 1975–2000  94

Part II. Transnational Adoption and Latin America  

4. From Refugees to Madonnas of the Cold War  129

5. Uncivil Wars  160

6. Latin American Family Values  197

Part III. Emerging Fights Over the Politics of Adoption  

7. Gay and Lesbian Adoption in the United States  241

Epilogue. U.S. Immigrants: The Next Fight over Race, Adoption, and Foster Care?  269

Notes  285

Bibliography  319

Index  353

Winner, 2013 James A. Rawley Prize (presented by the Organization of American Historians)

“Heroic rescue narratives of 'orphaned’ brown babies—from the adoption of Native children to the fairytale story of Zahara Jolie-Pitt—often crumble under scrutiny. Briggs, who adopted a Mexican-American daughter, looks unflinchingly at the disturbing history of U.S. adoption across race and borders.”—Ms. Magazine

“Briggs shines a bright light on the ‘politics of transracial and transnational adoption.’ . . . Her provocative retelling of recent adoption history emphasizes that conservative economic forces have steadily eroded state support of children in institutions or through foster care, promoting adoption as the better alternative.”—Martha Nichols, Women’s Review of Books

“[I]n juxtaposing histories and current realities of domestic interracial adoption with those of transnational adoption from Latin America, Briggs’s work contributes to the ongoing scholarly conversation about motherhood as a key battleground in global struggles over power, rights, and wellbeing.” —Clare Daniel, H-Net Reviews

“In Somebody’s Children, Laura Briggs reminds us that [transnational] adoptions are not only about how children and parents are joined across borders. They are also just as significantly about how so many children came to be defined as adoptable in the first place.” —Jessaca B. Leinaweaver, HAHR

“[Briggs] provides a refreshing and long-overdue feminist/womanist perspective on transracial and transnational adoption practices…. This book presents a powerful argument for a reexamination and reshaping of transracial and transnational adoption policy and practices.”—Robin Spath, Affilia

“Her work shines a light on the difficult path to creating and maintaining a stance of solidarity with the poor and disenfranchised… Scholars of race, kinship, human rights, cultural politics, and U.S. and Latin American history will find the book valuable and engrossing, and might even be tempted to do more reading or research on adoption.”—Sara Dorow, Reviews in American History

“As the book’s title suggests, adopted children were ‘somebody’s children,; a fact disturbingly absent from most adoption narratives. Briggs does history and family law a great service by bringing that truth to light.”—Joanna L. Grossman, Journal of American History

“Briggs has done an excellent job of challenging current beliefs, providing convincing arguments to extend the debate, and acknowledging that the facts are not always apparent in the cover stories about adoptions.”—Ruth McCoy, Social Service Review

Winner, 2013 James A. Rawley Prize (presented by the Organization of American Historians)

“Heroic rescue narratives of 'orphaned’ brown babies—from the adoption of Native children to the fairytale story of Zahara Jolie-Pitt—often crumble under scrutiny. Briggs, who adopted a Mexican-American daughter, looks unflinchingly at the disturbing history of U.S. adoption across race and borders.”—Ms. Magazine

“Briggs shines a bright light on the ‘politics of transracial and transnational adoption.’ . . . Her provocative retelling of recent adoption history emphasizes that conservative economic forces have steadily eroded state support of children in institutions or through foster care, promoting adoption as the better alternative.”—Martha Nichols, Women’s Review of Books

“[I]n juxtaposing histories and current realities of domestic interracial adoption with those of transnational adoption from Latin America, Briggs’s work contributes to the ongoing scholarly conversation about motherhood as a key battleground in global struggles over power, rights, and wellbeing.” —Clare Daniel, H-Net Reviews

“In Somebody’s Children, Laura Briggs reminds us that [transnational] adoptions are not only about how children and parents are joined across borders. They are also just as significantly about how so many children came to be defined as adoptable in the first place.” —Jessaca B. Leinaweaver, HAHR

“[Briggs] provides a refreshing and long-overdue feminist/womanist perspective on transracial and transnational adoption practices…. This book presents a powerful argument for a reexamination and reshaping of transracial and transnational adoption policy and practices.”—Robin Spath, Affilia

“Her work shines a light on the difficult path to creating and maintaining a stance of solidarity with the poor and disenfranchised… Scholars of race, kinship, human rights, cultural politics, and U.S. and Latin American history will find the book valuable and engrossing, and might even be tempted to do more reading or research on adoption.”—Sara Dorow, Reviews in American History

“As the book’s title suggests, adopted children were ‘somebody’s children,; a fact disturbingly absent from most adoption narratives. Briggs does history and family law a great service by bringing that truth to light.”—Joanna L. Grossman, Journal of American History

“Briggs has done an excellent job of challenging current beliefs, providing convincing arguments to extend the debate, and acknowledging that the facts are not always apparent in the cover stories about adoptions.”—Ruth McCoy, Social Service Review

"I have been longing for someone to write this book for a number of years—and how fortunate we are that Laura Briggs has made this her project; she is an outstanding scholar and thinker. A brilliant and wide-ranging book, Somebody's Children makes a powerful contribution to the study of adoption. The public policy implications of Briggs's work are stunning, and I hope this book will contribute to reshaping adoption practice in the United States."—Rickie Solinger, author of Pregnancy and Power: A Short History of Reproductive Politics in America

"For decades, a child-saving ideology that devalues the bonds of children of color with their families and communities has served to mask social, economic, and political inequities in the United States and abroad. Laura Briggs's astute analysis exposes the historical struggles underlying this devaluation in domestic and foreign policies. Somebody's Children is essential reading for everyone concerned about the politics of adoption and the equal dignity of families worldwide."—Dorothy Roberts, author of the books Killing the Black Body, Shattered Bonds, and Fatal Invention

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