From 1926 to 1974, North Carolina operated a massive eugenics program. People as young as 10 years old were forcibly sterilized in hopes of eliminating "inferior" traits from the state gene pool. Now they have a chance to speak out.
Later this month, victims of the state's eugenics law will be asked to share their stories with a governor's task force and to suggest ways of compensation.
Former Gov. Mike Easley apologized to the 7,600 victims in 2002, but none of them has been compensated in any way.
"I hope the victims feel free to share their stories and thoughts on what the state can do to compensate them for the injustice that was done to them," task force member Phoebe Zerwick said.
"I think it's important for us not to decide on a package or a figure on behalf of a group of people," said Zerwick, a former reporter and editor at the Winston-Salem Journal and now a lecturer at Wake Forest University.
Here's the frightening part--even after eugenics was completely and utterly discredited after the exposure of the Nazis' massive sterilization program, North Carolina actually ramped it up from the 1940s to the 1960s. As a result, 2,900 people--almost 40 percent of the program's victims--are still alive. To call this a black mark on North Carolina would be a colossal understatement.
The treatment of Elaine Riddick, who grew up in northeastern North Carolina, is frighteningly typical of the victims. Back in 1968, she was raped and became pregnant. Her reward? State officials bullied her grandparents into having her sterilized.
"My grandmother was afraid that if she didn't sign the paper, they would cut off her benefits, like the canned food she got every week," Riddick said. "So she signed, without understanding what sterilization or tubal ligation really meant."
Many of those sterilized by state-sanctioned doctors were from poor families who didn't have the education or background to make such a major life decision, said Charmaine Fuller Cooper, director of the eugenics compensation task force.
Such treatment would be considered grossly unethical today, and possibly even criminal.
The state legislature has the final say on whether victims will be compensated, and how much money they will receive. Given how outrageous this is, the vote better be unanimous.