Note: I meant to post this two years ago, so some of the information about the bills passed may be out-of-date.
Until
this last month, I didn’t know that America once had Eugenics Laws to forcibly
sterilize people. By “people,” I’m referring to an estimated 650,000 Americans,
7600 of them from North Carolina. 71 percent of those sterilized in NC were
operated on after World War Two, when the other 32 states with Eugenics laws
had toned down their racist genetic-theory enthusiasm. Between 1929 and 1974,
if you lived in North Carolina and you were deaf, blind, diagnosed with a
mental disorder, had special needs, poor, a minority, a mother out of wedlock,
or any combination of the above, it was up to the mercy of a judge and your
doctor whether or not you should be forcibly sterilized.
1929-
Two years after the Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell, when forced sterilization for the
mentally ill or feeble-minded was ruled constitutionally OK, North Carolina
passed their “Act to Provide for the Sterilization of Mentally Defective and
Feeble-Minded Inmates of Charitable and Penal Institutions of the State of
North Carolina.” This meant that they were also fans of forced sterilization if
it meant eliminating inferior genetics for “the public good.” Those likely to
be sterilized were “insane” or “feeble-minded” people who came from “unfit”
parents. Or, as Supreme Court Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes stated in
Bell. v. Buck, “Three
generations of imbeciles are enough.” By the way, Buck v. Bell still isn’t overturned.
1933
The
Eugenics Board of North Carolina was originally founded, like Eugenics boards
in other states, to supervise the sterilization of inmates or the
institutionalized. But the EBNC also wanted to lower the state’s public
assistance costs by allowing counties’ welfare departments and state social
workers to seek sterilization for their uneducated or unemployed clients who
were likely to have more children.
1947
The
number of sterilization operations performed on free civilians became greater
than those performed on the incarcerated and institutionalized. Then
Birthright, later called The Human Betterment League, started its biggest
chapter in North Carolina. They claimed to study the nature of Eugenics through
funding the sterilization of those the League called “Morons.” Their program
lasted for thirty years, mainly to targeted poor black women. Their program
lasted for thirty years.
1950-1960
From
1950 to 1960, North Carolina sterilized more people than they had in any other
decade, and Mecklenburg County sterilized three times people than any other
county. Wallace Kuralt, nationally known for his advocacy of eugenics, was head
of Mecklenburg County’s Welfare Department. His department pushed to sterilize,
“low mentality-low income families which tend to produce the largest number of
children." Thousands of women were sterilized for being “promiscuous,”
including women who had been raped. IQ tests were used to determine if a
patient was “capable” of having children.
1963
99
percent of those sterilized in North Carolina were women, and 60 percent were
black. Voluntary sterilization were legalized and offered as a form of birth
control to unwed or underage mothers, especially those on welfare. Though some
women were recorded as voluntarily undergoing the procedure, many patients were
uninformed about the procedure, or told that it was reversible.
Now
Even
though North Carolina performed America’s last sterilization in 1974, Eugenics laws remained legitimate until
2003, when they were finally repealed. In June, the North Carolina drafted the
United States’ first bill that proposes compensation for the victims of forced
sterilization. 72 victims are verified but around two thousand are estimated to
be still alive. The bill passed through North Carolina’s House of
Representatives, but didn’t pass through the State Senate. Each victim would’ve
received fifty grand, but, as NC Senator Austin Allran said, “The state has no
money anyway.” Back in the 60s and 70s, when the state was looking for ways to
cut down on welfare costs, they thought that they couldn’t afford to let
“unworthy” people have kids. Now, it kind of seems like the state can’t even
afford to say that it’s sorry.
