Few People Know The Real Story About North Carolina's Eugenics Program
By Carolyn Harmon|Published February 26, 2024
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Carolyn Harmon
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Under Brown Mountain Lights the Beast of Blandenboro wanders this magical land where lighthouses shine on kingdoms only accessible by ferries. A Lost Colony of legends and pirates revealed in historical sites and majestic mountains with views that make us weep. The home of handmade sculptures and scrumptious cuisine. North Carolina leaves this long-time writer and artist breathless with endless surprises, including the unlikely warmth a winter walk on the beach can bring.
The real story of North Carolina’s Eugenics Program is disturbing, but it wasn’t alone. From the early 1900s and into the 1970s, approximately 60,000 people were sterilized in 32 of the United States. While it may seem difficult to fathom, from 1929 to 1977 the State of North Carolina approved and administered the sterilization of more than 7,600 people of which approximately 85 percent were female. Read on for more information about the eugenics program in North Carolina and some history about the shocking practice.
North Carolina's sterilization program began with the passage of the State Sterilization Act in 1929, which was declared unconstitutional in 1933 for not allowing an appeals process.
In the same year, the N.C. General Assembly passed a law allowing an appeal process, creating the Board of Eugenics to oversee sterilizations. This 2012 map of victims is from the Governor's Office of North Carolina: Notice the number in Mecklenburg County (red).
For a little background, the Bertillon System was invented by Alphonse Bertillon of Paris, France in 1879.
It replaced a system of identifying suspects and used measurements and photography. His method identified individuals by measurements, shapes, and identifying marks, among other characteristics.
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This is a Bertillon record of Sir Frances Galton in 1893.
Known as the father of eugenics science, Galton was the cousin of Charles Darwin and was knighted in 1909.
Beginning in the late 1800s, he and other influencers help to sway legislation in favor of sterilization procedures.
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Galton wrote "Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development" in 1883.
Supporters of the movement focused on creating a better population that included individuals with "desirable" traits, including high intelligence and without deformities.
And in 1947, the Human Betterment League of North Carolina was founded by James G. Hanes whose organizers funded a newspaper article campaign to convince the citizens that sterilizations were necessary.
By 1957, the League distributed more than 575,000 pieces of mail promoting the program and went out of business in 1988.
This piece of propaganda was put out by AES supporters.
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During the 1960s, social workers in North Carolina had the authority to recommend sterilizations at which time the eugenics program expanded to include welfare recipients.
This was a contributing factor to the large increase in sterilizations among African Americans and women.
In 2002, Gov. Mike Easley gave a public apology to victims, making North Carolina the third state in the nation to officially apologize for eugenics practices.
The state law banning forced sterilization was passed in 2003. In 2009, the N.C. Office of Archives and History placed this marker in downtown Raleigh at the intersection of North McDowell and West Jones streets. In addition, the Office of Justice for Sterilization Victims
was established in 2010 to compensate victims who were forcibly sterilized by the State's Eugenics Board program.
