Eugenics Board of North Carolina

rdf:langString Eugenics Board of North Carolina

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString June 2012

rdf:langString Protects ... * its mentally handicapped men and women * the children of future generations * and the community at large It Saves ... * thousands of taxpayer dollars * needless human tragedy * wasted lives

rdf:langString —This thirteen year old girl expects her first child in March 1968 ... She has never done any work and gets along so poorly with others that her school experience was poor. Because of Elaine's inability to control herself, and her promiscuity - there are community reports of her "running around" and out late at night unchaperoned, the physician has advised sterilization ... This will at least prevent additional children from being born to this child who cannot care for herself, and can never function in any way as a parent.

rdf:langString There can be no place for sentimentality in solving the problems of the mental health of our citizens. We would be less than human were we to feel no compassion for our unfortunates. But it is a peculiar paradox of human nature that while the best stock of our people is being lost on the battle fronts of the world, we make plans for the betterment and the coddling of our defectives.

rdf:langString First sentence of lead needs to be a summary and the examples with legal notes need to cite the proper name of the legal cases.

rdf:langString —'You Wouldn't Expect ... ', Human Betterment League, 1950

rdf:langString —"Against Their Will", Winston-Salem Journal

rdf:langString NCEB Case Summary: Elaine Riddick

rdf:langString No Place For Sentimentality

rdf:langString North Carolina's Selective Sterilization Law

rdf:langString The Eugenics Board of North Carolina (EBNC) was a State Board of the state of North Carolina formed in July 1933 by the North Carolina State Legislature by the passage of House Bill 1013, entitled "An Act to Amend Chapter 34 of the Public Laws of 1929 of North Carolina Relating to the Sterilization of Persons Mentally Defective". This Bill formally repealed a 1929 law, which had been ruled as unconstitutional by the North Carolina Supreme Court earlier in the year. Over time, the Board shifted their focus to include sterilizations. Their original purpose was to oversee the practice of sterilization as it pertained to inmates or patients of public-funded institutions that were judged to be 'mentally defective or feeble-minded' by authorities. The majority of these sterilizations were coerced. Academic sources have observed that this was not only an ableist and classist project but also a racist one, as Blacks were disproportionately targeted. Of the 7,686 people who were sterilized in North Carolina after 1933, 5,000 were Black. American Civil Liberties Union attorney Brenda Feign Fasteau said of the situation, "As far as I can determine, the statistics reveal that since 1964, approximately 65 percent of the women sterilized in North Carolina were Black and approximately 35 percent were White." In contrast to other eugenics programs across the United States, the North Carolina Board enabled county departments of public welfare to petition for the sterilization of their clients. The Board remained in operation until 1977. During its existence thousands of individuals were sterilized. In 1977 the N.C. General Assembly repealed the laws authorizing its existence, though it would not be until 2003 that the involuntary sterilization laws that underpinned the Board's operations were repealed. Today the Board's work is repudiated by people across the political, scientific and private spectrum. In 2013, North Carolina passed legislation to compensate those sterilized under the Board's jurisdiction.