Eugenics and Forced Sterilization
Clarence Gamble and James Hanes were founding members of the Human Betterment League of North Carolina in 1947. The League was tied to forced sterilization programs that saw both men and women, mostly poor, of low IQ, and predominantly minority extraction, undergo surgical sterilization without consent, with the goal being to reduce the state's welfare burden and improve the gene pool. The program ended in 1977; the state government apologized publicly in 2002. Governor Bev Perdue is advocating for financial restitution to be made to 7,600 victims.
Read more about this topic: Clarence Gamble
Famous quotes containing the word forced:
“For in all the world there are no people so piteous and forlorn as those who are forced to eat the bitter bread of dependency in their old age, and find how steep are the stairs of another man’s house. Wherever they go they know themselves unwelcome. Wherever they are, they feel themselves a burden. There is no humiliation of the spirit they are not forced to endure. Their hearts are scarred all over with the stabs from cruel and callous speeches.”
—Dorothy Dix (1861–1951)