INCLUSION DAILY EXPRESS -- North Carolina's Eugenics Past

Inclusion Daily Express Logo

International Disability Rights News Service
Click here for today's headlines

Keeping advocates informed, inspired and connected since 1999.
Click here for daily or weekly delivery . . . OR
Try Inclusion Daily Express for two weeks FREE . . .

North Carolina's Eugenics Past

"To the victims and families of this regrettable episode in North Carolina's past, I extend my sincere apologies and want to assure them that we will not forget what they have endured."
--North Carolina Governor Mike Easley, apologizing on behalf of his state for the sterilizations of 7,600 people during the last century (April 17, 2003)

2005
April 28: North Carolina Lawmakers To Consider Reparations For Eugenics Survivors

2003
April 25: Panel Recommends Counseling For Sterilization Survivors
April 17: Easley Signs Law Ending State's Eugenics Era
April 4: Bill To Overturn Eugenics Law Passes State Senate
February 21: Lawmakers Seek To Repeal Eugenics Law; Researchers Find Deaths Linked To Sterilizations
February 18: State Looks At Compensating Sterilization Victims
January 13: Newspaper Series On Eugenics Should Be A Warning

2002
December 16: Easley Is Third Governor To Apologize For Sterilizations

Related resources:
"Against Their Will" (Winston-Salem Journal)
"Virginia's Eugenics Legacy" (Inclusion Daily Express)
Oregonians Get Apology For Sterilization (Inclusion Daily Express)

Click here for top of this page

Easley Is Third Governor To Apologize For Sterilizations
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
December 16, 2002

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA--"On behalf of the state I deeply apologize to the victims and their families for this past injustice, and for the pain and suffering they had to endure over the years."

That quote is from a statement North Carolina Governor Mike Easley sent to the Winston-Salem Journal Thursday.

"This is a sad and regrettable chapter in the state's history, and it must be one that is never repeated again," Easley said.

Easley's apology was intended for more than 7,600 North Carolinians who were surgically sterilized between 1929 and 1974 under the state's eugenics program.

Easley is the third governor to give an official apology for a state's part in the eugenics movement. Virginia's Governor Mark Warner apologized in May on behalf of his state for the sterilization of 8,000 of its citizens. Earlier this month, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber apologized for his state's sterilizing of more than 2,600 people, most of whom were in state-operated institutions.

Eugenics was based on the racist idea that "undesirable" people should not be allowed to have children. Thirty states had mandatory sterilization laws on their books for much of the twentieth century. Thirty states had mandatory eugenics laws by which more than 60,000 people, primarily people with developmental disabilities and mental illnesses, are documented to have gone through the procedures. In some circumstances, girls and young women were forced to go through the operation simply because they were runaways or lived in poverty.

The eugenics movement began to lose force after World War II when people learned that Adolph Hitler used the same tactics to sterilize hundreds of thousands of people during the Nazi era in Europe.

North Carolina, however, dramatically expanded its program after 1945. The state also targeted black women in the general population and gave social workers the power to recommend sterilization.

Under North Carolina's laws the third largest number of people in the nation were sterilized, just behind Virginia and California.

Last week, the Winston-Salem Journal ran an excellent five-part series on North Carolina's eugenics system.

This link will take you to the Journal's series:
http://againsttheirwill.journalnow.com

Friday's edition included this story:
"Easley Apologizes To Sterilization Victims"
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/red/02/1216b.htm

Click here for top of this page

Newspaper Series On Eugenics Should Be A Warning
January 13, 2003

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA--The following four paragraphs are excerpts from an editorial in Monday's Charlotte Observer:

The Winston-Salem Journal's investigation into North Carolina's 40-year program of involuntary sterilization, published last month, ought to be a warning for all of us.

With painful examples, the series "Against Their Will" tells how a small panel of bureaucrats, the Eugenics Board of North Carolina, made life-changing decisions for people, many of them children, sometimes against their or their families' wishes. The program went on until 1974, years after the discrediting of its underpinning scientific theory -- that certain inheritable problems would disappear if people who had them were sterilized.

The series depicts how secret bureaucratic programs with little oversight can go horribly off-track -- for years.

As researchers rush pell-mell into genetic engineering, the eugenics story should warn us all that "progress" can be anything but, that unfounded theory can be wrong as often as right, and that even well-intentioned programs can unjustly target society's most powerless. After all, the arrogance that prompted social workers, doctors and others to talk about "the lower orders" and "mentally deficient" people has not vanished from the human race.

Full editorial:
"Against Their Will" (Charlotte Observer)
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/4933693.htm

Click here for top of this page

State Looks At Compensating Sterilization Victims
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
February 18, 2003

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA--Last week, North Carolina became the first state to consider whether it should pay thousands of people who were sterilized under the eugenics laws of the last century.

Governor Mike Easley appointed members to a Eugenics Study Committee and asked them to investigate how the state's sterilization program started, how to prevent it from happening again and how to redress the victims. The committee might consider financially compensating the victims.

"I feel real good about this, because somebody needs to do something," Nial Cox Ramirez, 56, told the Winston-Salem Journal. Ramirez was sterilized in 1965 when she was 18. She filed a lawsuit against the sterilization program in 1973, but it was later dismissed for technical reasons.

In December, Easley officially apologized on behalf of the state for forcing 7,600 North Carolinians between 1929 and 1974 to go through surgical procedures so they could not have children. Some were as young as 10 years of age when they were sterilized.

Across the United States more than 65,000 people were documented to have been sterilized under eugenics laws, based on the idea that society would be improved if people with mental retardation, mental illness, other disabilities or "undesirables" were not allowed to spread their "problems" on to their children. During the 1960s, most of those sterilized in North Carolina were young black women.

Over the past nine months, the governors of Virginia, Oregon, North Carolina and South Carolina have all issued official apologies, but none had mentioned financial reparations to the victims of eugenics.

The conclusions and recommendations from North Carolina's panel could impact the other 31 states where sterilization laws were on the books during the 20th century.

Related article:
"Eugenics panel to consider redress" (Winston-Salem Journal)
http://www.journalnow.com/wsj/MGB2JNAR5CD.html

Click here for top of this page

Lawmakers Seek To Repeal Eugenics Law;
Researchers Find Deaths Linked To Sterilizations
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
February 21, 2003

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA--The North Carolina legislature acted this week to repeal a law that allowed 7,600 people to be sterilized against their will during the last century.

The law gave the state's Eugenics Board authority to order sterilizations for people who had mental retardation, mental illness, or other disabilities under the later-discredited belief that they would pass their "problems" on to their children and society in general.

North Carolina's law has been in effect since 1929, but has not been used since 1974. Some of those forced to undergo sterilization were children as young as 10 years of age. During the 1960s, most of those sterilized in the state were young black women.

In December, Governor Mike Easley became the third governor to apologize for a state's role in forced sterilizations. Last week he set up a committee to investigate the eugenics program and consider reparations for the victims.

In a related story, the Winston-Salem Journal reported that a review of just 183 sterilization procedures resulted in three deaths.

During the 1930s a "single white female, age 21 years, died from post-operative intestinal obstruction ten days after" her sterilization operation, a 30-year-old married woman died two days after her operation, and a 17-year-old girl died from "locked bowels" five months after her surgery.

A researcher noted that three deaths in that relatively small group would have been an extremely high rate for such a procedure.

Related article:
"Some eugenics patients died after surgery" (Winston-Salem Journal)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/03/red/0221a.htm

Click here for top of this page

Bill To Overturn Eugenics Law Passes State Senate
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
April 4, 2003

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA--The North Carolina Senate voted unanimously Thursday to overturn a 74-year-old eugenics law that had allowed 7,600 people to be sterilized -- many against their will. The vote came just one week after state House voted 116-1 to throw out the law that has not been used since 1974.

The sterilization law came into effect in 1929 during the eugenics movement, based on the racist idea that society could be improved by keeping people with disabilities, and other "undesirables", from having children. More than 66,000 people in 33 states and two Canadian provinces were legally sterilized during the early and middle part of the last century.

During the 1960s, most of those sterilized under North Carolina's law were young black women and girls.

Last December, Governor Mike Easley became the third governor to apologize for a state's eugenics past, following the governors of Virginia and Oregon. He has appointed a panel to look into possible reparations and counseling for North Carolinians who were forcibly sterilized.

Easley is expected to pass the bill to overturn the eugenics law.

Click here for top of this page

Easley Signs Law Ending State's Eugenics Era
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
April 17, 2003

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA--Governor Mike Easley signed a law Thursday that officially puts an end to forced sterilizations in North Carolina.

"To the victims and families of this regrettable episode in North Carolina's past, I extend my sincere apologies and want to assure them that we will not forget what they have endured," Easley stated as he signed the measure to repeal the 1929 sterilization law that had not been used since 1974.

Among those present at the signing were Elaine Riddick Jessie and Nial Cox Ramirez, who received a standing ovation from state House members and onlookers when they were introduced.

"It was a very joyful event to see that someone actually took the time and heard our cries ... took the time and paid attention," Jessie said.

"No one should ever feel the pain and agony of not being able to have children," she said. "It's a God-given right: Be fruitful and multiply and fill the world with images of thyself. This is something they took away from us."

The sterilization law had given power to the Eugenics Board of North Carolina to sterilize 7,600 people, most of whom had mental retardation or mental illness, most against their will. Only California and Virginia performed more sterilizations.

The eugenics movement in the early and mid- 20th century was based on the belief that keeping "undesirable" people from having children would be a good way to correct society's problems. More than 66,000 people in 33 states and two Canadian provinces were legally sterilized under eugenics laws passed by lawmakers. In North Carolina, most of those sterilized during the 1960s were young black women and girls -- some as young as 10 years of age.

Governors of North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia, South Carolina and California have officially apologized for their states' involvement in the eugenics movement. In February, Gov. Easley set up a committee to investigate his state's eugenics program and consider reparations or counseling for its victims.

Click here for top of this page

Panel Recommends Counseling For Sterilization Survivors
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
April 25, 2003

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA--The state of North Carolina should provide counseling and medical benefits for its residents who were forcibly sterilized during the last century, a panel decided Thursday.

But the Eugenics Study Committee, appointed in February by Governor Mike Easley, did not say whether they should be paid cash.

"There's no price tag for the damage that was done," said Stan Slawinski of the state Department of Health and Human Services. "How does one set parameters around that?"

North Carolina was the third state within the last year to formally apologize for sterilizing its citizens. It is the first to look at how to help those who are still alive to recover.

"The difficulty is we have nothing to measure against because no other state has done this," Slawinski said.

Another difficulty is the fact that the state does not know which subjects may have approved their own sterilizations and which did not. One option being considered would be for the state to advertise that it's looking for people who were forcibly sterilized. They could then request to see their own records and ask to appear before a special panel that would determine how the person should be compensated.

Still, such compensation may not gain popular support while the state is in a financial crisis.

More than 7,600 North Carolinians were sterilized between 1929 and 1974 under the state's eugenics law that was finally repealed just one week ago. Most of those who were operated upon had mental retardation or mental illness. By the end of the 1960s, more than 60 percent of those sterilized were black and 99 percent were female -- some as young as 10 years of age.

Eugenics was based on the racist belief that society would be improved by keeping "undesirables" from having children. Thirty-three states and two Canadian provinces legally sterilized an estimated 66,000 people. American eugenics lost popularity after the collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945. In North Carolina, however, almost four-fifths of the state's sterilizations took place after World War II.

The committee is expected to give its final recommendations next month.

Click here for top of this page

Have the latest disability rights news delivered to your email Inbox every week day.
Subscribe to Inclusion Daily Express today!

Get your news here!