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The looks on their faces were somber as they listened to recordings of the stories of those who were forcibly sterilized under North Carolina’s eugenics program.
About 300 people came to Winston-Salem State University yesterday for an opening reception and to see the state’s new exhibit explaining the program.
“Look at the ages, 13, 14,” said Johnetta Huntley, a counselor at Parkland High School. “They’re all young.
“Our children need to be exposed to this so they won’t let something of this nature happen again.”
The interactive exhibit opened in Raleigh in June and made its first stop on the road at WSSU earlier this month.
The state’s eugenics program lasted from 1929 until 1974.
A five-member board made decisions to sterilize young and poor women and men, many of them against their will. More than 7,600 people were sterilized.
People who viewed the exhibit said they were shocked that states endorsed and carried out such programs.
“This is a project that is really embarrassing for the whole United States of America, for something like this to have taken place,” said Bobbie Linville of Winston-Salem. “This is something that you would expect in Nazi Germany.”
The exhibit explains eugenics and how it was carried out, has stories from survivors and displays medical tools, including a caliper, curette and forceps.
Several students said they are just now learning about the program.
Brittany Jones is a sophomore at WSSU who attended the reception at the Anderson Center after an instructor recommended that students see the exhibit.
“It was definitely unfair. It didn’t give the people a chance to actually have a family of their own,” Jones said of the state’s eugenics program. “I didn’t really see anything wrong with the people that were sterilized.”
Some of the survivors came to the reception, which included a panel discussion. One of them, Elaine Riddick, watched as people listened to her story through a telephone receiver.
Riddick was 14 when she was sterilized at a hospital in Edenton in 1968.
“I think that it’s reaching a lot of people,” she said of the exhibit.
Martinique Lewis, a junior at N.C. A&T State University, said she was surprised to learn that her home state of California conducted many sterilizations under its own program. She said that the exhibit shows how unfairly those who were sterilized were treated.
“I just wish it was bigger and it was better publicized so more people can know,” she said.
State Rep. Larry Womble, D-Forsyth, who is pushing legislation to require the state to financially compensate the people who were sterilized, helped get the exhibit to WSSU as its first stop outside of Raleigh. State officials say they hope to set up other locations.
The exhibit will be on display on the second floor of the F.L. Atkins Building on campus through Jan. 31. The building is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is no charge to view the exhibit.
■ Patrick Wilson can be reached at 727-7286 or at pwilson@wsjournal.com.
