Research Paper On North Carolina's Eugenics Movement
North Carolina Eugenics Settlement
In 1929 through 1974 the nation participated in an era called the Eugenics Movement. This was a social movement that called to improve the nations population by essentially removing the unfit and mentally unstable from the society or otherwise known as a way to conserve and increase the dominant population. Basically during the Eugenics Movement, the government sterilized those that they believed were undesirable, therefore being unable to reproduce, ultimately in hopes of making a better and stronger society. The decision of whether an individual should be sterilized was based on factors such as if a women was unmarried with children, African Americans, mentally ill, minorities, blind, deformed, victims …show more content…
of rape, the poor, and many other factors that were considered “socially inadequate”. The sterilization of individuals began at a very young age, the youngest to be about age ten. The movement had been practiced in thirty one states, with California and Virginia having the largest number of forced sterilization upon persons.
North Carolina was one of the states that was very involved in this movement.
An estimate of 7,600 men and women in North Carolina were sterilized during the era. North Carolina was not one of the states that had the largest number of population sterilized but it was the state that was the most aggressive and lasted the longest. In recent news, North Carolina is one of the first states to pay compensation to the victims of the eugenics program. Official are in the process of determining the number of victims in order to equally distribute the ten million dollar fund. As of right now, according to the North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, there are one hundred and seventy seven victims which entitles fifty thousand dollars to each individual. The settlement of North Carolina Eugenics helped end the acceptance of scientific racism because it exemplified the immorality of the previous Eugenic practices. It was the first settlement for the unlawful actions, thus displaying the remorse of the state. Even though the settlement might not be enough for the barbarity toward the victims, it acknowledges that the government and scientific racism is wrong.This issue demonstrates the fact that the government needs be be federal contrary to state. In this situation federal government opposed the movement and protested for equality. States at the time encourage such unlawful actions, which should have been regulated by the national government. Decisions about civil liberties should be made nationally rather than locally, I believe that better decisions can be made if it would be handled in that
way.
I’m disappointed to say that before this, I had never heard of the Eugenics Movement within the United States. This is absolutely a shock to me, I think it’s very wrong in number of ways but I do understand but do not condone, the ideas behind why the United States did such things. This exemplifies the idea which I think you are trying to instill upon us, that we need to learn every aspect of our government, not only the prideful moments in history but also the shameful ones in order to become a better citizen, therefore a creating a better society for the future.
In 1929 through 1974 the nation participated in an era called the Eugenics Movement. This was a social movement that called to improve the nations population by essentially removing the unfit and mentally unstable from the society or otherwise known as a way to conserve and increase the dominant population. Basically during the Eugenics Movement, the government sterilized those that they believed were undesirable, therefore being unable to reproduce, ultimately in hopes of making a better and stronger society. The decision of whether an individual should be sterilized was based on factors such as if a women was unmarried with children, African Americans, mentally ill, minorities, blind, deformed, victims …show more content…
of rape, the poor, and many other factors that were considered “socially inadequate”. The sterilization of individuals began at a very young age, the youngest to be about age ten. The movement had been practiced in thirty one states, with California and Virginia having the largest number of forced sterilization upon persons.
North Carolina was one of the states that was very involved in this movement.
An estimate of 7,600 men and women in North Carolina were sterilized during the era. North Carolina was not one of the states that had the largest number of population sterilized but it was the state that was the most aggressive and lasted the longest. In recent news, North Carolina is one of the first states to pay compensation to the victims of the eugenics program. Official are in the process of determining the number of victims in order to equally distribute the ten million dollar fund. As of right now, according to the North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, there are one hundred and seventy seven victims which entitles fifty thousand dollars to each individual. The settlement of North Carolina Eugenics helped end the acceptance of scientific racism because it exemplified the immorality of the previous Eugenic practices. It was the first settlement for the unlawful actions, thus displaying the remorse of the state. Even though the settlement might not be enough for the barbarity toward the victims, it acknowledges that the government and scientific racism is wrong.This issue demonstrates the fact that the government needs be be federal contrary to state. In this situation federal government opposed the movement and protested for equality. States at the time encourage such unlawful actions, which should have been regulated by the national government. Decisions about civil liberties should be made nationally rather than locally, I believe that better decisions can be made if it would be handled in that
way.
I’m disappointed to say that before this, I had never heard of the Eugenics Movement within the United States. This is absolutely a shock to me, I think it’s very wrong in number of ways but I do understand but do not condone, the ideas behind why the United States did such things. This exemplifies the idea which I think you are trying to instill upon us, that we need to learn every aspect of our government, not only the prideful moments in history but also the shameful ones in order to become a better citizen, therefore a creating a better society for the future.