Compensation for Victims of Eugenics Program Moves Forward | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Publisher's note: The author of this fine report is Barry Smith, who is a contributor for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

Bipartisan measure would give $50,000 each to survivors of sterilization policy

    RALEIGH     Victims of the state's forced sterilization program moved a step closer to getting $50,000 in compensation apiece after the House Judiciary Committee gave its blessing to the proposal on Tuesday.

    The action came after one of the victims, Elaine Riddick, told the committee how being sterilized at the age of 14 traumatized her.

    The day also saw one member of the General Assembly, Rep. Larry Womble, D-Forsyth, who had been injured in an auto crash last year, travel to Raleigh to push for the committee's action. Womble's office has noted that he has been undergoing rehabilitation in Winston-Salem to help recover from the crash.

    Womble has pushed for compensation for the sterilization victims for years.

    "When I was sterilized, I was 14 years old," Riddick told the committee. She said that she had been a victim of rape and thanked the committee for standing up for the victims.

    "My body was not ready for this," Riddick continued. "My body was traumatized from the rape and I was traumatized again from the sterilization."

    For more than four decades, the state sterilized an estimated 7,600 North Carolinians who were poor, sick, undereducated, or disabled. The practice stopped in the mid-1970s.

    Officials believe that between 1,500 and 2,000 sterilization victims could still be alive.

    The bill would provide $50,000 in compensation to sterilization victims who were alive as of March 1, 2010. Survivors of deceased victims who died before then would not get the compensation.

    Victims of the involuntary sterilization program would have until Dec. 31, 2015, to file a claim with the state.

    The bill would set up an Office of Justice for Sterilization Victims to assist victims in making their claims. The N.C. Industrial Commission would determine if people filing the claims were eligible for compensation.

    The bill would appropriate $10 million for compensation and about another $1 million for administering the program.

    Some attending the meeting were critical of the decision not to provide compensation to deceased victims, or their estates.

    A couple of committee members expressed opposition to the bill. One was Rep. George Cleveland, R-Onslow. While noting that the eugenics program was "despicable," he said he had a problem with providing compensation.

    "People today are paying for something that happened in the past," Cleveland said. "I don't think it's right."

    Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam, R-Wake, said that providing compensation was the right thing to do.

    "We cannot go back and change history," Stam said. "We can't fix their bodies. But we can fix compensation."

    The bill still has stops in a couple more committees before making its way to the House floor.

    Barry Smith is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.