Samuel Crumbine, Public Health Pioneer

Samuel Crumbine was a physician and public health pioneer known throughout Kansas and the nation for his evidence-based methods of promoting food safety, sanitation, and combating communicable diseases. Many Kansans may still tread on his “Don’t Spit on the Sidewalk” bricks or have heard his catchy “swat the fly” campaign. he also helped Kansas navigate the 1918-1920 flu pandemic as secretary of health. But Crumbine has a “darker” legacy of supporting eugenics policies that imprisoned women infected with STDs in Kansas. We’ll discuss Crumbine’s complicated legacy and how conflicts over public health versus individual rights were as present in 1918 as they are today.

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