Forced Sterilization in North Carolina
by: Hakeem Smith
Compulsory or Forced Sterilization is an open secret in a number of countries. Though the justification and methods vary, in most cases, governments have done little to acknowledge or make restitution for these clear human rights violations. In North Carolina, forced sterilizations were carried out against men—castration and vasectomy—and women—salpingectomy and oophorectomy—without their consent. At the time of writing, North Carolina is the only U.S. state to both officially apologize and develop a program for victim compensation.
North Carolina first legalized sterilization in 1919, in order to “benefit the moral, mental, or physical condition of inmates of penal and charitable institutions” (NCGA 1919). The state passed another law and began compulsory sterilization on a small scale in 1929—the same year as U.S. Supreme Court decision Buck v. Bell—recognizing the principle behind compulsory sterilization as constitutionally sound (Boggs 2013). However, in 1933 the NC law was declared unconstitutional after appeals to the state Supreme Court in Brewer v. Valk et al. A third law—amending the 1929 law and thereby legalizing sterilization—was also passed in 1933, and established the five-member Eugenics Board of North Carolina.
Under the law, sterilizations could be petitioned by the superintendent of public welfare, the heads of prisons or other institutions housing potential patients, or the intended victim’s next of kin or legal guardian. Despite language granting individuals the ability to appeal such recommendations, the statute was broad, allowing the Eugenics Board to overrule those objections. The Eugenics Board could authorize sterilizations in the best interest of the individual, for the public good, or if the individual was suspected to produce children with physical, mental, or moral deficiency (Boggs 2013).
The Eugenics Board selected for compulsory sterilization “uneducated girls who had been raped by older men, poor teenagers from large families, people with epilepsy and those deemed to be too ‘feeble-minded’ to raise children” (Severson 2011). The Eugenics Board existed for over 40 years—from 1933 to 1977—and gave vast powers to civil servants, even to social workers to designate individuals for sterilization. These recommendations were usually based on I.Q. tests—now known to be inaccurate and unreliable (Severson 2011), and subjective observations of “unwholesome” environments (Boggs 2013). As such, by 1935 there were already 223 people sterilized by the state of North Carolina(Boggs 2013).
Wealthy and influential North Carolinians—like James Hanes, of HanesBrands, Inc., and Dr. Clarence Gamble, the heir to Proctor & Gamble Co.—pursued an agenda of eugenics and formed the Human Betterment League of North Carolina in 1947 (Severson 2011). The existence of both private and government organizations, centered around eugenics, galvanized the concept in North Carolina. “[A]lthough many states abandoned [eugenics programs] after World War II because of the movement’s association with the practices of Nazi Germany…North Carolina actually expanded its program in the postwar era” (Neuman 2013). In fact the majority of sterilizations in North Carolina, approximately 80%, happened after 1945 (Bauerlein 2013). During the 1960s, African Americans—who made up about 25% of North Carolina’s population—represented a disproportionate 60% of compulsory sterilizations (Bauerlein 2013).
Between 1929 and 1974 North Carolina sterilized 7,600 people. Almost 2,000 of those were under the age of 18. In some cases the victims were as young as 10 years old (Bauerlein 2013). Nonwhite minorities made up close to 40% of those sterilized in that time period, and girls and women were hardest affected at 85 percent (Severson 2011). In the final 15 years of its operation, 99% percent of the victims were women, and more than 60 percent of the victims were black (Cussins 2013).
Nial Ramirez, in 1973, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, was the first victim to sue the Eugenics Board of North Carolina (Severson 2011). More victims came forward and more lawsuits were filed throughout the 1970s, but it was not until a series of articles in The Winston-Salem Journal in 2002, that public outrage and awareness elicited an official response (Severson 2011). The articles prompted former Governor Mike Easley to issue a formal apology to the victims and former Representative Larry Womble to introduce a victim compensation proposal (Bauerlein 2013).
Former Governor Bev Perdue appointed a task force to determine the state’s obligation to the victims of the eugenics program, saying “[t]he state owes something to the victims” (Severson 2011). The Gubernatorial Task Force on Eugenics Compensation concluded that “[m]oney was the most important thing to offer victims, followed by mental health services” (Severson 2011). Former Governor Perdue vowed to put money in the 2012 budget, and NC House Speaker, Thom Tillis, as part of a bipartisan effort, pledged to work on a compensation bill for victims (Severson 2011). Even NC House Speaker Pro Tempore Paul Stam pronounced, “[n]o amount that we can afford to pay is enough” (Bauerlein 2013). Finally, in June 2013, the North Carolina Legislature approved a $10 million compensation fund that would begin paying out in June 2015. The amount of compensation each victim will receive, according to the state Department of Administration, depends on the number of verified claims (Bauerlein 2013).
In July, 2013, NC Governor Pat McCrory signed into law Senate Bill 402 which created the Eugenics Asexualization and Sterilization Compensation Program, and The Office of Justice for Sterilization Victims. Victims had a deadline of June 30, 2014, only 1 year of it’s implementation, to file a claim and receive payment from the state (Bailey 2014). So far only 520 of the estimated 1,800 living victims filed claims; the $10 million will be divided among those whose claims are approved (Bailey 2014). As the deadline has only recently passed this number may increase, but estimates are that at the current rate, the average payment will be less than $20,000 per person (Bailey 2014). Those payments are to be issued on June 30, 2015.
Key Players: James G. Hanes, Dr. Clarence Gamble, Nial Ramirez, Elaine Riddick, Former NC Representative Larry Womble, Former NC Governor Mike Easley, Former NC Governor Bev Perdue, House speaker Thom Tillis, House Speaker Pro Tempore Paul Stam, NC Governor Pat McCrory, Fetzer “Frank” Mills (Task Force Member), Dr. Laura Gerald (Task Force Chairperson), Phoebe Zerwick (Task Force Member), Dr. Lenwood G. Davis (Task Force Member), Demetrius Worley Berry (Task Force Member), Kevin Begos
Key Organizations: Eugenics Board of North Carolina, the Human Betterment League of North Carolina, the Winston-Salem Journal, North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union, Gubernatorial Task Force on Eugenics Compensation (establish under Executive Order 83), Office of Justice for Sterilization Victims (established under Senate Bill 402)
Court Cases: Nial Cox Ramirez, the first to sue the Eugenics Board of North Carolina, received a $7,000 settlement from the doctor who performed the procedure (Severson 2011).
Elaine Riddick Jessie, the most outspoken proponent of victim compensation, sued the Eugenics Board for $1 million. The jury at the U.S. District Court in New Bern, NC decided her constitutional rights were not violated, and later her attorneys again lost on appeal. The team petitioned the United States Supreme Court, but were denied a hearing (Railey & Begos 2002).
Sources:
Bailey Jr., Jerome. 2014. “Deadline Looms for Victims of North Carolina’s Forced Sterilization Program”. AP: The Big Story. June 24. http://bigstory.ap .org/article/deadline-looms-nc-eugenics-victims-payments (August 27, 2014).
Bakst, Daren. 2011. “North Carolina’s Forced-Sterilization Program:
A Case for Compensating the Living Victims”. John Locke Foundation. http://www.johnlocke.org/acrobat/policyReports/NCeugenics.pdf (August 19, 2014).
Bauerlein, Valerie. 2013. “North Carolina to Compensate Sterilization Victims”. The Wall Street Journal. July 26. http://online.wsj.com/news/ articles/SB10001424127887323971204578629943220881914 (August 7, 2014).
Boggs, Belle. 2013. “North Carolina’s Shocking History of Sterilization”. Salon. August 11. http://www.salon.com/2013/08/11/north_carolinas_ shocking_history_of_sterilization/ (August 7, 2014).
Cooper, Charmaine S. Fuller. 2011. “Presentation 1”. N.C. Office of Justice for Sterilization Victims. http://www.sterilizationvictims.nc.gov/documents /meetings/CharmainesPresentation-TaskForce-427–2011.pdf (August 19, 2014).
Cussins, Jessica. 2013. “Involuntary Sterilization Then and Now”. Genetic Crossroads. September 5. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/genetic-crossroads/201309/involuntary-sterilization-then-and-now (August 7, 2014).
Neuman, Scott. 2013. “North Carolina Set to Compensate Forced Sterilization Victims”. NPR. July 25. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/07/25/205547272/north-carolina-set-to-compensate-forced-sterilization-victims (August 7, 2014).
NCGA. North Carolina General Assembly. 1919. Public Laws and Resolutions. General Assembly Session of 1919. Chapter 281. http://digital.ncdcr.gov/ cdm/ref/collection/p249901coll22/id/228497 (August 19, 2014).
NCGA. North Carolina General Assembly. 1929. Public Laws and Resolutions. General Assembly Session of 1929. Chapter 34. http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/ ref/collection/p249901coll22/id/238406 (August 19, 2014).
NCGA. North Carolina General Assembly. 1933. Public Laws and Resolutions. General Assembly Session of 1933. Chapter 224. http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm /compoundobject/collection/p249901coll22/id/242485 (August 19, 2014).
N.C. Office of Justice for Sterilization Victims. 2013. “Brochure” http://www.sterilizationvictims.nc.gov/documents/JS-brochure.pdf?id=635429885931304527 (August 7, 2014).
Railey, John and Kevin Begos. 2002. “’Still Hiding’: Woman Sterilized at 14 Still Carries a Load of Shame”. Winston-Salem Journal. December 9. http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/article_e26e967e-8fe4-11e2-b104-0019bb30f31a.html
Severson, Kim. 2011. “Thousands Sterilized, a State Weighs Restitution”. The New York Times. December 9. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/10/us/ redress-weighed-for-forced-sterilizations-in-north-carolina.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 (August 7, 2014).
