uscitizen
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Jun 22, 7:11 PM EDT
NC remembering victims of sterilization program
By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- North Carolina recalled a regrettable side of its history on Monday by unveiling a roadside marker remembering poor people, mental patients and prisoners who were sterilized against their will by state officials.
The cast aluminum sign in downtown Raleigh provides a permanent remembrance of the program intended to keep thousands of people considered mentally disabled or otherwise genetically inferior from having children.
"This does represent one of the ugly chapters in North Carolina's history," said the Rev. William Barber, president of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "We have to deal with our past in order to have a better present and a stronger future."
More than 7,600 people were sterilized by "choice or coercion" under the state's so-called eugenics program between 1933 and 1973, according to the marker's text. North Carolina was one of more than two dozen states that ran such programs after social reformers began advocating for the approach a century ago.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EUGENICS_MARKER?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
NC remembering victims of sterilization program
By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- North Carolina recalled a regrettable side of its history on Monday by unveiling a roadside marker remembering poor people, mental patients and prisoners who were sterilized against their will by state officials.
The cast aluminum sign in downtown Raleigh provides a permanent remembrance of the program intended to keep thousands of people considered mentally disabled or otherwise genetically inferior from having children.
"This does represent one of the ugly chapters in North Carolina's history," said the Rev. William Barber, president of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "We have to deal with our past in order to have a better present and a stronger future."
More than 7,600 people were sterilized by "choice or coercion" under the state's so-called eugenics program between 1933 and 1973, according to the marker's text. North Carolina was one of more than two dozen states that ran such programs after social reformers began advocating for the approach a century ago.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EUGENICS_MARKER?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
