From 1924 to 1950, Georgia Tann and the Tennessee Children’s Home Society stole and sold an estimated 5,000 children.
Special Collections Department/University of MemphisGeorgia Tann.
When most people consider a life of thievery and crime, the last thing they’d think of stealing is a baby. Generally speaking, babies are a pain in the neck. And it’s not like you can sell a baby, right?
In 20th century Tennessee, some people were doing just that.
The Tennessee Children’s Home Society dedicated itself to finding new homes for children, whether they liked it or not. Led by a woman named Georgia Tann, the Tennessee Children’s Home Society would sell children, especially white babies with blonde hair and blue eyes.
How long could one expect to sell babies before getting caught? A year, maybe? Perhaps even three?
Try twenty-six. From 1924 to 1950, Tann and the Tennessee Children’s Home Society sold white babies on the black market. In nearly three decades, an estimated 5,000 children were nabbed and sold to new families.
Where exactly did Tann find thousands of kids to steal? The answer is quite simple: poor people.
Tann Dreamed Of Being An Attorney Liker Her Father
Special Collections Department/University of MemphisThe Tennessee Children’s Home Society.
Georgia Tann was born on July 18, 1891 in Philadelphia, Mississippi to two working parents, something that was unusual for the time. Her mother was a school teacher and her father was a local judge.
At a young age, her father signed up Tann for piano lessons, hoping she would become a professional concert pianist. Growing up, her father would sometimes bring home abandoned or neglected children, usually teaming up with a doctor or minister to find a place for them to stay.
It’s possible that environment influenced Tann’s future career in social work, but there were other factors involved in forming that path. In 1913, she graduated with a music degree from Martha Washington College. In the summers, she took a couple of social work courses at Columbia University.
However, Tann despised playing music despite her father’s wishes for a future as a concert pianist. Instead, Tann wanted to follow her father’s footsteps and become a lawyer.
With his help, Tann studied law and passed the bar exam in Mississippi. But she never practiced law or worked as an attorney. Her father felt it was an unusual profession for a woman.
So, Tann turned to the one profession women were accepted into with open arms: social work.
Tann began working at Mississippi Children’s Home Society as the Receiving Director. There, she worked with Ann Atwood, the daughter of a family friend who had just given birth to a child out of wedlock. In 1922, Tann adopted a young girl named June.
Atwood and Tann spent a lot of time together, with Atwood often accompanying Tann when she left the home to work as a teacher for a few months. Atwood spent Christmas 1923 with Tann and her parents.
It’s unclear when exactly the two began their romantic relationship, but when Tann was fired in 1924 for her poor child-placing methods, Atwood and her son moved with Tann and June to Memphis.
Tann Begins Her Successful Money Making Scheme – At The Expense Of Children
Wikimedia CommonsA memorial for the Society.
Once in Memphis, Tann became the Executive Secretary at the Shelby County branch of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society. She immediately began trafficking children.
In Tennessee, in order to prevent the sale of children, agencies like the Tennessee Children’s Home Society were paid for their services, not for the children themselves. However, Tann found a way to circumvent this law and make more money in the process.
In-state adoptions would usually cost the family about seven dollars, but Tann discovered she could run out of state adoptions – and charge a premium. This meant the real money came from interstate adoptions. Adoptive parents from places such as New York and Los Angeles were willing to spend $5,000 (nearly $70,000 in today’s money).
In addition to the cost of the adoption, Tann would charge her primarily wealthy patrons extra for background checks she would never conduct, air travel costs, and upcharge adoption papers. She kept the profits from this operation in a bank account under a false corporation name, pocketing 80% to 90% of the profits for herself.
Approximately 1,200 children were adopted out of the home between 1944 and 1950, most of which were adopted by families outside of Tennessee. Her clientele weren’t exactly unknown.
Joan Crawford adopted her twin daughters Cathy and Cynthia through Tann’s sham agency. Actors June Allyson and husband Dick Powell also adopted their child from Tann. Even New York Governor Herbert Lehman adopted a child through the agency.
But where exactly was Tann getting the children to run this operation? She would coerce families into giving them up, or sometimes Tann would just outright steal them.
Wikimedia CommonsA memorial for the children who died at the Society.
Many of the children came from poor families, who did not always have the necessary resources to search for their lost children.Tann didn’t just settle for stealing from low-income families. She was quick to pick up newborns from prisons and mental wards.
Even babies born in hospitals weren’t safe. She would bribe nurses and doctors in birthing wards to snatch up a few infants for her. Said nurses and doctors would then tell the parents that their child was stillborn.
When complaints were made to the police, Tann’s friendship with powerful tycoon and occasional mayor E.H. Crump ensured the complaints would be ignored. Heck, sometimes the police were helping her nab kids.
While Georgia Tann was swimming in money, she wasn’t making as much as she could have been. Children, like most human beings, are prone to dying. In the 26 years that Tann and the Tennessee Children’s Home Society were in business, it’s estimated that around 500 kids died at the hands of Tann, either through poor care or suspected abuse. Still, she was making a killing.
Memphis in the 1930s had the highest rate of infant mortality, likely helped by Tann. The Society was rife with reports of neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and murder. The staff were underqualified, with some reportedly being drug abusers.
The children were often sedated and neglected. Some of the dead children were buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis, but there are many who have never been found.
Tann’s Operation Comes To A Halt – But She Never Saw Prosecution
Wikimedia CommonsGordon Browning
Eventually, the Society was dropped from the Child Welfare League of America’s list of qualified adoption institutions in 1941 for Tann’s lack of background checks on parents looking to adopt. But that didn’t stop Tann’s operation.
Finally on September 11, 1950, Tennessee governor Gordon Browning, a political enemy of Tann’s friend Crump, opened an investigation into the Society. Memphis attorney Robert Taylor was assigned to look into Tann’s practices.
Within days, the story spread in the press across the nation like wildfire. It’s estimated Tann sold over 5,000 children.
In a cruel twist of irony, Tann died of cancer just days before the charges against the society were filed. The Tennessee Children’s Home Society closed not long after her death in 1950.
But Tann’s estate couldn’t escape the law. Three months later, the state sued for $500,000. The lawsuit settled outside of court.
If there is one positive to Tann’s entire illegal and immoral operation, it’s that she popularized the practice of adoption. Before the 1920s, it was pretty rare for families to adopt, but Tann’s targeting of wealthy families helped to raise awareness for the practice and make it more common.
Now that you’ve read about Georgia Tann, read about the Oklahoma Orphan Train. Then check out the these tragic photos of child laborers in the United States.
