Martha Waggoner of the Associated Press reports on a North Carolina task force suggestion that as many as 2,000 people who were forcibly sterilized decades ago should receive $50,000 each. The payout, which could amount to as much as $100 million, still requires approval from the state Legislature. However, the prospects of passing some sort of remuneration look strong as the governor embraced the recommendation, and North Carolina’s House speaker has come out in favor of payments.
This would mark the first time a state has officially compensated victims of eugenics programs, a controversial social engineering practice aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population by essentially weeding out the “feeble-minded” and others deemed undesirable. Dozens of other states had programs in the 20th century which forcibly sterilized people against their will under the auspices of improving the human race, however none have offered anything more than apologies.
According to the AP, more than 7,600 North Carolinians between 1929 and 1974 were surgically rendered unable to reproduce under state laws and practices that focused on epileptics and others considered “mentally defective.” Many were poor, black women deemed unfit to be parents.
Last year, a task force said 1,500 to 2,000 of the victims were still alive, although the state has verified only a small percentage. Also last year, Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue created a five-person committee — consisting of a judge, a doctor, a formal journalist, a historian, and a lawyer — to decide how to compensate victims. The panel had discussed amounts between $20k-$50k, a number which some victims and family members had angrily complained was too low.
While sterilization — taking away a person’s ability to have children — sounds barbaric and inhumane today, eugenics programs gained popularity in the U.S. and other countries in the early 1900s. They were promoted as a way to raise the health and intellectual levels of the human race. In all, more than 60,000 people were forcibly sterilized across 30+ states which enacted laws allowing for surgical sterilization, and some historians believe this was done under the radar to thousands more in other states.
Most states ceased use of eugenics programs after World War II when such practices became closely associated with Nazi Germany’s attempts to achieve racial purity. North Carolina was the exception to the rule, however, as the state actually increased its efforts after the war. Sterilizations in the Tar Heel state peaked in the 1950s, according to state records.
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