Daniel Smith, the Special Collections Librarian at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill's Health Sciences Library, has a fascinating post on the history of eugenics in North Carolina. Here is an excerpt:
In North Carolina over 7,600 people were sterilized between 1929 and 1974 under the state’s Eugenics Sterilization Program. Indiana was the first state to implement such a program, and eventually over 30 states followed suit, including North Carolina in 1929. The Eugenics Board of North Carolina reviewed petitions for sterilizations and authorized sterilizations in over 90% of cases. Of those sterilized, approximately 38% were black and 84% were female; moreover, 71% were classified as “feebleminded.” While most states’ sterilization programs diminished in scope after World War II, almost 80% of North Carolina’s cases occurred after 1945. By the late 1960’s over 60% of those sterilized in North Carolina were black and 99% were female.
Smith notes current legislative efforts intended to investigate and memorialize this history, and notes primary sources available in the Special Collections.
(h/t H-EUGENICS listserv)
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