Abstract
Between 1929 and 1975, North Carolina’s eugenic sterilization program authorized more than 7,600 sterilizations. A 2003 newspaper series in the Winston Salem Journal about this history led North Carolina governor Mike Easley to apologize for the program. Recently, the North Carolina legislature considered a restitution bill for sterilization victims, making North Carolina the first state in the nation to consider any kind of restitution for victims of state eugenic sterilization programs. Media characterization of eugenic sterilization programs as racial genocide added a political salience to the story that contributed to the potential for restitution but also distorted a program less concerned with improving racial quality than with controlling the reproduction of welfare recipients. While considerations of restitution to welfare recipients who suffered sterilization as a result of having children outside marriage might be politically unpalatable, restitution to victims of racial genocide seemed politically much more acceptable.
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