“A moron is a person whose mind never develops beyond that
of a ten year old child.”
In a yellowing 1950s pamphlet, being a moron seems to be the
only apparent requirement for subjugation to North Carolina’s old sterilization
program. Eerily, it entails the benefits and reasoning behind Eugenics, and its
necessity in preventing the ‘feeble-minded’ from rearing children. Decades
later, victims of the program who were only in their teens at the times of
their operations, have stepped forward to describe the action taken against
them and others.
More often than not, victims were poverty-stricken families
that the state was reluctant to see expand and become even more dependent on
taxpayer money. Elaine Riddick was
deemed ‘feeble-minded’ and ‘promiscuous’ after she was raped and became
pregnant at age 13. Her grandmother, with whom she lived, was pressured to sign
papers legitimizing her sterilization at the threat of removing all welfare
benefits from the entire household. She remained unaware the operation had
taken place until many years later.
Eugenics was practiced in over 30 states across the country and ran from 1929 to 1974. North Carolina is the first to offer financial compensation, promising each victim $56,000 in reparations. So far, only 177 victims have
been identified and confirmed.
You can find the ARTICLE HERE. (It’s a tad old, but still
relevant.)
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