Its certainly not a celebratory moment, but heres a cheer, nonetheless, for the state House and its important vote this week to set aside up to $10 million to compensate victims of North Carolinas former sterilization program. Involuntarily sterilized people mostly women but some men as well are eligible for $50,000 payments once their cases are verified; so far, there are 118 verified living victims.

The bill now goes to the Senate, which should approve it promptly so that at long last the sterilization victims can have a measure, if not a full measure, of recompense.

Theres a lot of history behind that 86-31 House vote on Tuesday. Starting in the 1930s, the N.C. Eugenics Board ran a program to sterilize people in mental hospitals and schools for troubled youths. Later the program focused on people on welfare. Some of the sterilizations were indeed voluntary (this was before the days of reliable birth control) but many others were not. And while other states had similar programs, ours was unusually extensive (third in the U.S. in total number of people sterilized) and long-lasting (into the 1970s).

The various states sterilization programs, which Americans today view with something akin to horror, did not seem that way to most people at the time. These were days particularly during the pre-Nazi Holocaust days when educated Americans talked openly of the dangers of enfeeblement and about selectively improving the human race.

In North Carolina the Human Betterment League, created by corporate leaders, proudly proclaimed that North Carolina offers its citizens protection in the form of selective sterilization. Its efforts, commencing after World War II, resulted in an upturn in state-conducted sterilizations. Over the decades, more than 7,000 North Carolinians were sterilized. Most were white, although African-Americans were sterilized in disproportionately large numbers.

The effort to bring the involuntary sterilizations to light, and then to obtain compensation, began several years ago. Many people and organizations deserve credit; a special nod goes to the Winston-Salem Journal for its reporting and advocacy. In contrast, those in the House who this week ducked responsibility for even the relatively few still-living victims of a grievously harmful state action are due no credit at all.

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Eugenics in the House