Second round of sterilization victim settlements due in November

It’s been 86 years since North Carolina initiated a forced sterilization program, and the N.C. General Assembly is still trying to compensate victims.

Victims of the program, which lasted from 1929 to 1977 with the majority of the program’s existence falling under the responsibility of the N.C. General Assembly and which forced mentally handicapped people and others to undergo sterilization, will receive an additional $15,000 of compensation on Nov. 1, after receiving $20,000 last fall.

The 2013 budget allocated a total of $10 million for qualified victims of the sterilization program.

But in addition to 220 approved victims, Chris Mears, spokesperson for the N.C. Department of Administration, said others have filed appeals to be compensated.

Mears, whose department oversees the Office of Justice for Sterilization Victims, said the appeals process is taking much longer than expected — prompting the state to issue compensation earlier.

The process should be sped up, said Anna Krome-Lukens, a UNC history and public policy lecturer who wrote her thesis on the history of eugenics in the state.

“Even though a lot of the people who were sterilized were sterilized as teenagers, that still means they’re in their late 60s now at the youngest,” she said.

Krome-Lukens said she applauds the state’s efforts for compensation, but she said the scope of the project could be expanded to include those sterilized under county agents.

“Those county agents would not have been sterilizing people if the state law wasn’t there,” she said. “I don’t think they should make a distinction between those who were sterilized by the state eugenics board and those sterilized by any official, even if it was a county official.”

Krome-Lukens said she questions whether the state is doing enough even for those who already qualify for compensation.

“It’s taken a long time for us to get here, and at the end of the day if it ends up being $45,000, that’s great, but can you really compensate for taking away someone’s right to reproduce?” she said.

N.C. Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, wrote in an essay that the state program expanded over time, as 79 percent of forced sterilizations happened after 1945. In the essay, he approximates 7,600 people were sterilized during the program’s 45-year tenure — the third highest of any state.

Elizabeth Haddix, an attorney with the UNC Center for Civil Rights, said her organization has been active in the compensation process.

“We’ve actually coordinated a team of pro bono attorneys who have helped people with their claims and during the appeals process,” Haddix said.

She said the center’s interest stemmed from the belief that the North Carolina eugenics program was an issue of racial oppression, as it disproportionately affected African-American women.

“Over 60 percent of people sterilized were African-American and, in those years, black people were only 10 percent of the population,” she said.

Though North Carolina was the first of the 32 states with a eugenics program to provide compensation to victims, Krome-Lukens said it must continue its leadership.

“I think because of our role as one of the most active sterilization programs, I think we also have the responsibility to be a leader in addressing that,” she said.

state@dailytarheel.com