Links Winston-Salem Journal series “Against Their Will” “Eugenics in North Carolina,” a project of the State Library of North Carolina “House Select Committee on Compensation for Victims of the Eugenics Sterilization Program: Report to the 2009 session of the 2009 General Assembly,” State Library of N.C. Digital Repository Biennial Reports of the Eugenics Board of […]
Lara Torgesen
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Charmaine Fuller Cooper: Seeking justice for victims
Thirty years had passed since the last state-sponsored sterilization when former Gov. Mike Easley formally apologized to the victims in 2002, the year before the Legislature officially struck the law from the books. However, little has happened to compensate or bring justice to sterilization survivors. Charmaine Fuller Cooper, the newly appointed executive director of the […]
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The powerful people behind the eugenics movement
Eugenics traces its roots back to the late 19th century when Britain’s Sir Francis Galton coined the term from the Greek root meaning “good in birth,” wrote Daniel Kevles in his book In the Name of Eugenics. It was based on the notion that human beings could actively employ evolutionary concepts to create better people […]
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N.C. eugenics survivors seek justice
It has been 40 years since Elaine Riddick heard the words, but she still remembers them like yesterday: “The doctor told me I had been butchered.” In 1968, at just 14 years old, Elaine became one of the thousands of victims of North Carolina’s forced sterilization program. Quietly and efficiently operating from 1929 until 1974, […]