An Outrage: NC Black Women Were Sterilized

Image via Wikipedia. The proud flag of Raleigh, North Carolina.

According to a recent post in “The Root,” (http://www.theroot.com/buzz/outrage-nc-black-women-were-sterilized)

the lovely people in North Carolina and some 30 other states actually ran a government-sponsored eugenics program during which time it sterilized black (and white) women it judged not worthy of giving birth in the future.

Now, one more kicker is the fact, according to this piece that referenced a new television news program, “Rock Center with Brian Williams,” (http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/07/8640744-victims-speak-out-about-north-carolina-sterilization-program-which-targeted-women-young-girls-and-blacks), is the fact that this program in North Carolina ran from 1929 to 1974.  That’s an awful lot of young women, both black and white, sterilized against their will, isn’t it?

Image via Wikipedia. Brian Williams, dashing host of "Rock Center."

Neither article makes any mention as to why the programs were started across the US (other than the fact that in Raleigh, NC, a state board approved it), who sanctioned these programs across the country, when (or if) they ever “officially” stopped, and what possible kinds of legal compensation any of the victims and their families could receive (and how a judge could conceivably calculate the loss in terms of money).

It’s great that “The Root,” and “Rock Center” are both covering this incredible story, about a eugenics programs being run in 31 states across the country for a period of who-knows-how-long, but it certainly begs the larger question(s) as to why it began across the country, who oversaw it and approved it, what years it actually ran from, what happened to it, and why it’s only now coming to light, and what’s going to be done about it.

Heavy.

 

Related articles:

• An Outrage: NC Black Women Were Sterilized (theroot.com)
• NC Justice for Sterilization Victims (growfoodlocally.wordpress.com)
• Black Women in N.Carolina Sterilized without their knowledge (colonel6.com)
• North Carolina sterilization program, which targeted women, young girls and blacks (imageinme.wordpress.com)
• ‘Butchered’: NC sterilization program targeted women, blacks (rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com)
• In NC, only 34 sterilization victims found so far (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Horrifying State-Sponsored Eugenics Program Forcibly Sterilized Thousands of American Women [Racism] (jezebel.com)
• In NC, Only 34 Sterilization Victims Found So Far (abcnews.go.com)
• In NC, only 34 sterilization victims found so far (sfgate.com)
• 34 people in forced sterilization program found (charlotte.news14.com)