Prospects bleak for NC eugenics reparations effort
June 17th, 2009From the Winston-Salem Journal and the Associated Press/WRAL:
A North Carolina legislator says he will continue to fight for reparations for people who were sterilized by the state, even though his proposal has almost no chance of getting funded.
A legislative committee has approved a measure that would pay $20,000 to each living victim of the state’s eugenics program, which lasted from 1929 to 1974 and sterilized more than 7,600 people who were considered mentally unfit. But the NC House budget chairman said there’s no money for reparations in a state budget that is facing a $4 billion shortfall.
Bill sponsor Rep. Larry Womble said he realizes funding is scarce, but “that doesn’t mean we should stop and wait for the economy to turn around to do something about this … these people are dying.”
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