WATCH HAMPTON DELLINGER DISCUSS HOW, AS LT. GOV., HE WILL MAKE COMPENSATION FOR THE VICTIMS OF FORCED STATE GOV'T STERILIZATIONS A TOP BUDGET PRIORITY

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A Message from Hampton Dellinger

I want to draw your attention to one of the most shameful episodes in our state's history.

State officials' first rule ought to be the same as a doctor's: do no harm. Yet North Carolina state government harmed thousands of its citizens, primarily women and African-Americans. For more than four decades, government agencies oversaw the forcible sterilization of more than 7,600 North Carolinians. Thousands of the victims were 18 and younger. In one case, a 10-year-old boy was castrated.

Those involved said the program was needed to cleanse society of the "undesirable," "promiscuous" and "feeble minded," but we know what really drove this horrific effort: racism and sexism.

North Carolina state government's effort to play God ended in 1974, and for the next thirty years state government stood silent.

Finally, in 2002, a series of articles in the Winston-Salem Journal exposed the enormity of the state eugenics program. The paper uncovered files showing victims literally begging for mercy before the state eugenics board. The final article in that series ran on December 12, 2002, now more than five years ago.

In 2003, a state committee called for compensation for documented victims. But to this day, not one penny has been paid to any victim. And yet the state is willing to use public money to fund athletic scholarships at private schools, overpay by millions for office supplies, and cut taxes for the rich.

We need to get our priorities straight. As Lt. Governor, I will submit a state budget proposal that includes payment to the documented survivors of the sterilization program. They are not unknowable victims of distant historical events. The sterilization program lasted until the mid-1970s, and thousands of its victims still live every day with the enormity of the wrongs they have suffered.

The full story of North Carolina's sterilization program is available in an incredible series of articles in the Winston-Salem Journal available online at http://againsttheirwill.journalnow.com/. I urge you to read it and, as Lt. Governor, I will urge that the victims be offered at least some measure of actual compensation.