by Erin Smith
Eugenics is a word that many folks either have never heard of or simply shake their head and turn away when spoken. It refers to a now defunct program that operated in North Carolina and other states that sought the sterilization of folks as a means of population control as well as a method of controlling poverty, according to the North Carolina Office of Justice for Sterilization Victims.
A U.S. Senate bill hopes to see payments that are made to eugenics victims be excluded from calculations used to determine a person’s eligibility for federal benefits. The bill passed US Senate unanimously and was sent to the U.S. House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform. Senators Tom Tillis and Richard burr, both Republicans and Democrat Tom Carper of Delaware co-sponsored the bill.
It refers to a time in the history of about 38 states when many women were forced to undergo sterilization. Between the 1920s and 1970s the N.C. Eugenics Board approved the forced sterilization of about 8,000 folks.
Of those 8,000, about 85 percent were women. According to research performed by the University of Vermont regarding North Carolina’s eugenics program, by the 1960s African Americans made up about 60 percent of those sterilized.
Many eugenics victims were sterilized without their consent or knowledge, according to reports.
According to North Carolina’s Office of Justice for Sterilization Victims report, 73 folks in Bladen County were subjected to sterilization through North Carolina’s eugenics program.
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