NC NAACP Calls for Restitution for Victims of Sterilization in North Carolina

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NC NAACP Statement on Restitution for the Victims of the North Carolina Eugenics Board FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 10, 2012 For More Information:        Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President, 919-394-8137                                            Mrs. Amina Turner, Executive Director, 919-682-4700                                            Atty. Jennifer Marsh, Legal Redress Coordinator, 919-682-4700 (DURHAM) – Today the Governor’s Eugenics Compensation Task Force will have its final meeting before submitting their official recommendations to the Governor. The North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP through the Women in the NAACP (WIN) would like to express our support for the NC Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, Eugenics Task Force and victims of the North Carolina Eugenics Board. We continue to see promise in the recent activities by the Task Force addressing this ugly chapter in North Carolina’s history which resulted in the forcible sterilization of many of our citizens, many of whom were poor and minority. The NC NAACP with our 120+ HKonJ partners addressed the issue of wrongful sterilization with the adoption of the coalition’s 14-point agenda in 2007. Since that time, obtaining compensation for the victims of the forcible sterilization program has been a mainstay of our agenda. Ten years have passed since the state offered a formal apology to victims of the involuntary sterilizations in 2001. Time is precious for the surviving victims and we need to move forward to assist these individuals. We ask that the task force and our state leaders quickly move forward in authorizing compensation to individual victims as soon as possible. While we understand a figure for compensation has been proposed, we ask that the victims be compensated at the highest amount that our moral conscience and justice demands. These victims have suffered for years, in some cases enduring immense physical and psychological distress. You heard many of the heart-breaking stories during the testimony last summer by several of the victims who were brave and strong enough to share their hurt in a public forum. The time has come for the state to right this horrible wrong and fulfill its promise to these citizens who have suffered long enough. We call on the leadership of this North Carolina to support the payment of restitution for the sterilization victims and move the compensation process forward so that restitution is made to victims this year. ### Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.

An Outrage: NC Black Women Were Sterilized – Source: The Root

Back in 1967, Elaine Riddick was raped in North Carolina at the age of 13 by a neighbor. She says that the state raped her again when it ordered that she be sterilized immediately after giving birth. (Read more)

See related:

Sterilization

N.C. Eugenics Task Force submits Preliminary Report to Governor

RALEIGH – The Governor’s Eugenics Compensation Task Force today submitted its preliminary report to Gov. Bev Perdue. The report examines possible methods or forms of compensation to those persons forcibly sterilized by the state’s former Eugenics Board program and a review of past recommendations. The Governor established the Task Force last March through Executive Order 83. The Preliminary Report is available at http://www.sterilizationvictims.nc.gov/documents/Preliminary_Report.pdf.

The Preliminary Report offers four preliminary recommendations for the state to consider:

· Lump sum financial damages for living victims of the N.C. Eugenics Board program;

· Mental health services for living victims;

· Funding for traveling N.C. Eugenics exhibit; and

· Continuation and Expansion Funding for the N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation.

The Task Force acknowledged in a letter to the Governor “that the state of North Carolina must move beyond just an apology.” Task Force added, “We recognize that no amount of money can replace or give value to what has been done to nearly 7,600 people, and the Task Force will explore the preliminary recommendations in greater detail while also examining others.”

The Preliminary Report is not final and subject to change. Final recommendations are due to the Governor on Feb. 1, 2012.

If you or someone you know may have been impacted by the program and would like to verify your status and access your patient files, call the Foundation’s toll-free hotline at 1-877-550-6013 or visit the Foundation’s website at www.sterilizationvictims.nc.gov to download a verification request form. Foundation staff is available to assist callers from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

###

Jill Warren Lucas

Communications Director

NC Department of Administration

ph. 919-807-2496

See related:

Eugenics

Sterilization