RALEIGH, N.C. — As many as 2,000 people forcibly sterilized decades ago in North Carolina should get $50,000 each, a task force said Tuesday, marking the first time a state has moved to compensate victims of eugenics programs to weed out the “feeble-minded” and others deemed undesirable.
The payout, which could amount to $100 million, still needs approval from the legislature. But the prospects for passage of some sort of compensation are promising, since the governor immediately embraced the recommendation, and the speaker of the House has come out in favor of payments.
While dozens of states had programs in the 20th century to sterilize people against their will in the name of improving the human race, none of the others has offered anything more than apologies.
Compensation “sends a clear message that we in North Carolina are people who pay for our mistakes and that we do not tolerate bureaucracies that trample on basic human rights,” said Dr. Laura Gerald, a pediatrician and panel chairwoman.
From 1929 to 1974, more than 7,600 people in North Carolina were surgically rendered unable to reproduce under state laws and practices that singled out epileptics and others considered mentally defective. Many of those sterilized were poor, black women deemed unfit to be parents.
A task-force report last year said 1,500 to 2,000 of the victims were still alive, although the state has verified only 72 so far.
Last year, Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue created the five-person task force to decide how to compensate victims. It consisted of a judge, a doctor, a former journalist, a historian and a lawyer.
Some victims said they were just looking forward to seeing the issue resolved.
Elaine Riddick, 57, was sterilized at 14 after she gave birth to a son who was the product of a rape.
“I was a victim twice: once by the rapist and once by the state of North Carolina. Normally, if you commit a crime, you pay for it. They committed the biggest crime. They committed a crime against God. They committed a crime against humanity,” she said, wiping tears from her face. “And this is all I can do is just accept what they said today and go on with my life.”
