RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - An author who has studied state-sponsored sterilization programs that came before Nazi Germany adopted the practice is in North Carolina a month before lawmakers consider compensating victims.

Edwin Black is speaking Wednesday at the General Assembly in Raleigh and later in Research Triangle Park at events co-sponsored by Campbell University's law school. He's authored a history of the eugenics movement in America.

From 1929 to 1974, more than 7,600 people in North Carolina were surgically rendered unable to reproduce under state laws and rules that targeted people deemed unfit to be parents. They included epileptics, those considered mentally defective, and many who were simply poor.

A task force report last year said up to 2,000 of the victims were still alive, though the state has verified only 111 so far.

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Author discusses NC eugenics regime at Legislature