Several hundred aging survivors of North Carolinas eugenics program were double crossed by callous state senators who failed to pass overdue compensation for their forced sterilizations. Gov. Beverly Perdue and the House of Representatives signed off on a commissions recommendation that each living victim receive $50,000. This culminated more than a decade of hard work by advocates.

Senate leader Phil Berger, R.- Rockingham, pledged his support at the beginning of the recent legislative session. However, when the dust settled, the Senate never even voted on the compensation measure. Republican Sen. Don East said the states past actions were regrettable but money would not fix the problem.

Some 7,600 predominately low-income and disproportionately black citizens were sterilized by the state against their will in order to prevent defectives from having multiple pregnancies and increasing welfare rolls. Eugenics activity was official state policy from 1929 to 1977. Breeding for quality was a worldwide passion, especially in Nazi Germany.

I was involved in preparing sterilization paperwork as a fledgling county social worker in the early 1970s. Progressive national and state foundations supported the practice, as did many universities and hospitals. Most other states ended state-sponsored sterilizations after World War II, but North Carolina increased the operations in the 1960s. Gov. Mike Easley officially apologized for the states heinous actions in 2002.

This July, the Senate resorted to cowardly protests that paying compensation might open North Carolina up to future financial liability.

Victims have until now never sued the state for compensation. However, state responsibility is voluminously documented by the general statutes of the time, thousands of case records, academic studies of eugenics and the heart-wrenching stories of the few hundred living victims who would benefit from compensation.

Liability has been proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, and the senators excuses represent only gutless political babble.

Gov. Perdue should use her remaining tenure to provide a measure of justice for victims. She and other Democratic leaders are far from blameless. For over 10 years the Democratic-controlled legislature, with Perdue serving as a top Senate budget writer, turned a deaf ear to the crusade by Rep. Larry Womble, D.-Forsyth, and others who pleaded in vain for compensation. Blame falls on many state leaders from both parties.

Perdue should immediately take action to:

Reach out to our hospitals, philanthropic foundations and corporations for donations to partially offset the cost of compensation. Many of those organizations openly supported forced sterilization or practiced wicked silence.

Read more:

Eugenics: The state can still act