North Carolina will spend $10 million to compensate men and women who were sterilized in the state's eugenics program, which was among the most extensive and long-running of its kind.
North Carolina sterilized 7,600 people from 1929 to 1974 who were deemed socially or mentally unfit. Victims were as young as 10 years old and nearly all were sterilized forcibly or with inadequate consent, according to the state.
A. Background:
Eugenics (sexual sterilizations) started in North Carolina in 1929 with the passage of the sterilization law and continued through 1973, when the last recorded sterilizations were known to be reported.
B. Number of Victims:
Over 8,000 sterilizations were approved by the Eugenics Board of North Carolina. The total number of victims actually sterilized is estimated to have been over 7,600 (Winston-Salem, “Lifting the Curtain on a Shameful Era”). Of this number, females represented approx. 85% of those sterilized (State Library, “Statistics,” p. 1). By the late 1960s, the sterilization of men was virtually halted, as women made up 99% of those sterilized (Sinderbrand, p. 1). African Americans represent 39% of those sterilized overall; by the later 1960s, they made up 60% of those sterilized, even though they made up only a quarter of the population (Sinderbrand, p. 1). Of those sterilized up to 1963, 25% were considered mentally ill and 70% were considered mentally deficient. In each of these categories, females account for over 75% of the sterilizations. North Carolina ranked third in the United States for the total number of people sterilized.
C. The Legislature this past week approved a $10 million compensation fund that would begin paying out in June 2015. So far the state has identified 177 living victims. The amount of compensation each receives will depend on the number of verified claims, according to the state Department of Administration. If 200 people are verified, for example, each would receive $50,000.
Mr. Lynch said he was sent to a school for the mentally and developmentally disabled after his widowed mother could no longer care for her seven children. Records from the state's eugenics board show that in the late 1940s no one from that school was to leave without being sterilized, except in cases where children had been committed in error.
Mr. Womble began introducing proposals to compensate the victims after the Winston-Salem Journal published a 2002 series on the then little-remembered program. Former Gov. Mike Easley apologized to eugenics victims in 2002, but the Legislature has up until now been unable to settle on how best to compensate victims.
While 30 states had eugenics programs in the early 20th century, North Carolina was one of the few that accelerated its program after a backlash against the eugenics practices of Nazi Germany. Mr. Stam says that nearly 80% of the state's sterilizations took place after 1945.
In the program's early days, the people who were sterilized were in proportion to the state's racial mix, Mr. Stam said. But in the 1960s, the program began to sterilize black people at a disproportionate rate of 60% even though blacks only represented about 25% of the state population. Eighty-five percent of those sterilized over the lifetime of the program were women.
About 2,000 of the 7,600 who were sterilized were under age 18, he said. Compensation for sterilization victims was a rare issue with bipartisan support in the state's six-month legislative session that wrapped up Friday.
For Elaine Riddick, who was sterilized as part of the program as a young girl, the compensation will be the culmination of a long-fought effort. She was vocal in the bid to get compensation. She told a state-appointed board at a public hearing in 2011 that she was sterilized for no reason. "They cut me open like I was a hog," she said. "What do you think I'm worth? What do you think I'm worth?"
["North Carolina Atones For Its Sterilizations," Valerie Bauerlein, The Wall Street Journal, Sat.-Sun., July 27-28, 2013, p. A3; www.uvm.edu/Lutz Kaelber, Professor of Sociology, University of Vermont and students in HCOL1951 last updated: 10/21/2013/ "Eugenics/Sexual Sterilizations in North Carolina"; Sexual Reckonings, Susan Cahn (2007), Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts; John E. Gardella, "Eugenic Sterilization in America and North Carolina", North Carolina Medical Journal (1995), 56 (2): 106-10]
Among attorney and author Charles Jerome Ware's best-selling books are:
(1) The Secret Science of Winning Lotteries, Sweepstakes and Contests;
http://amzn.com/1432793888
(2) Understanding the Law: A Primer;
http://amzn.com/1440111456
(3) The Immigration Paradox: 15 Tips for Winning Immigration Cases;
http://amzn.com/1440171920
(4) Legal Consumer Tips and Secrets: Avoiding Debtors' Prison in the United States; and
http://amzn.com/1462051847
(5) Quince (15) Consejos Para Ganar Casos Del Inmigracion.
http://amzn.com/1462068952
www.CharlesJeromeWare.com ("We fight. You win.")
Attorney Charles Jerome Ware is renowned and consistently ranked among the best attorneys and legal counsellors in the United States. [GQ Magazine, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, The Columbia Flier, USA TODAY, The Howard County Sun, The Anniston Star, The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX-TV NEWS, WHUR, WHUT, MPT, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, ABA Journal, et al.]
No comments:
Post a Comment