Task force remedies aren't enough, say victims of forced sterilization

By Sommer Brokaw The Charlotte Post | Last updated: Aug 29, 2011 - 11:33:28 AM

(NNPA) - North Carolina approved the sterilization of about 7,600 people from 1929 to 1974, mostly without their consent. An estimated 1,500 to 2,000 victims are alive today. Lela Dunston, 63, is one of the verified victims.

Ms. Dunston said after she gave birth to her son, James, at age 13, she was sterilized without her knowledge. “They was trying to give my mother social services money, and they did that because they said I was a child,” said Ms. Dunston, who lives in Raleigh. “I didn't have any rights. I was unstable, and I was mentally disturbed, and I wasn't able to take care of no more kids.”

Gov. Michael Easley issued an apology in 2003 on behalf of the state to victims sterilized under the authority of the N.C. Eugenics Board. The board was abolished in 1977, but sterilization laws remained in state statutes until 2003.

Efforts to address the state's sterilization history included a traveling Eugenics Exhibit and a Eugenics Board Historical Marker installed on the corner of McDowell and Jones Streets in Raleigh.

But Ms. Dunston is still haunted by what happened to her.

“I don't know why I can't get enough sleep. It's just there on my heart. I really would like to have had at least a daughter or something,” she said. “I don't have but one child.”

Gov. Beverly Perdue signed a 2009-10 fiscal year budget that included $250,000 for the establishment of a Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation. Staff was hired in spring 2010, and it was established in the N.C. Department of Administration as a clearinghouse “to provide justice to victims of North Carolina's Eugenics Board.”

On Aug. 1st, the Governor's Eugenics Compensation Task Force submitted its preliminary report examining possible redress to those forcibly sterilized and a review of past recommendations. The preliminary report offers four recommendations: a lump sum for financial damages for living victims; mental health services; funding for traveling the exhibit; and continuation and expansion funding for the N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation.

The early 20th century eugenics movement grew out of one of the beliefs of English scientist Sir Francis Galton, a half-cousin of Charles Darwin, that government intervention could promote the biological improvement of humans.

Out of this movement, N.C. and other states enacted laws that allowed sterilization of the “mentally diseased, feeble-minded or epileptic” to rid the population of “undesirables.” While most states decreased the number of sterilizations after World War II and atrocities of Nazi Germany became known, North Carolina's increased.

Females accounted for 85 percent of sterilization victims statewide, and non-Whites, composed predominantly of Blacks and some Native Americans, accounted for 40 percent. Mecklenburg County led the state with 485 sterilizations. In the Triangle, Wake county had 114, Durham county 82 and Orange county 40.

Victims had the opportunity to address the task force and to tell their stories at several public meetings. A review of past recommendations shows that several figures have been recommended for fiscal compensation, ranging from $20,000 to $50,000, but victims and family members said it was not enough.

“It's bogus, $20,000 is too little,” Ms. Dunston said.

Tony Riddick, the son of another victim, Elaine Riddick from Winfall, N.C., said in his meeting comments, transcribed in the task force's preliminary report: “What's actually bothering me ... you can't worry about who's funding it and whether they are a Republican or a Democrat. And I was here, and I heard the victim say $20,000 is not enough; then why are we considering $20,000? We shouldn't be concerned about the impact of our recommendations on the state. We need to deal with the fact that these victims were devastated.”

The task force acknowledged in a letter to the governor “that the state of North Carolina must move beyond just an apology.”

“We recognize that no amount of money can replace or give value to what has been done to nearly 7,600 people, and the Task Force will explore the preliminary recommendations in greater detail while also examining others.”

Final recommendations are due to the governor on Feb. 1, 2012.

(Call 1-877-550-6013 or visit the foundation's website at www.sterilizationvictims.nc.gov for more information about services and efforts to redress victims of sterilization in North Carolina.)

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