Tennessee Children's Home Society

Today, adoptions are carefully controlled.  Public or private, adoptions are scrutinized.  This was not always the case.  From the 1930's until 1951, Georgia Tann ran the Tennessee Children's Home Society.  The scandals that took place, the thousands of adoptions that were arranged under questionable means, resulted in adoption reform laws in Tennessee in 1951.  Unfortunately, this was too late for the children that were stolen and sold on the black market.  Those that did survive and placed for adoption, were subjected to harsh mistreatment at the hands of George Tann before they were adopted.  Children were stolen and adopted by clients of Tann.  Tann also in collusion with some local area doctors who informed the Home of unwed mothers. Tann would take the newborns under the pretext of providing them with hospital care and would later tell the mothers that the children had died and that their bodies had been buried immediately in the name of compassion.

When the scandal was finally investigated in 1951, investigators discovered that the Society was a front for a broad black market adoption ring, headed by Tann.  They found irregularities and secret bank accounts.  In some cases, Tann skimmed as much as 90% of the adoption fees when children were placed out of state.  Officials also found out that Judge Kelley had railroaded through hundreds of adoptions without following state laws.  Kelley received payments from Tann for her assistance.  Tann died in 1950, Kelley retired that same year, and was never prosecuted for her role in the scandal.

Over several decades, nineteen of the children who died at the Tennessee Children's Home Society under the care of Georgia Tann were buried in Elmwood Cemetery, with no headstones.  In 2015, the cemetery raised $13,000 to erect a monument in their memory.  It reads, in part, "In memory of the 19 children who finally rest here unmarked if not unknown, and of the hundreds who died under the cold, hard hand of Tennessee Children's Home Society.  Their final resting place unknown.  Their final peace a blessing.  The hard lesson of their fate changed adoption procedure and law nationwide.

If this topic interests you, read "Before We Were Yours" by Lisa Wingate.