Georgia State University law professor Paul Lombardo and Peter Hardin have an op-ed urging the Virginia legislature to compensate victims of the state's sterilization program. Lombardo is the author of the very important book on Buck v. Bell, Three Generations, No Imbeciles. He led the movement to have more recognition of Carrie Buck's life, including the historical marker in Charlottesville that is the illustration of this post.
Here's an excerpt from Hardin and Lombardo:
Today, legislators in Raleigh are to be applauded for voting to “pay for … mistakes” of the past. Since dead people don’t cash checks, the bill will not bust the state’s treasury: About 7,600 men, women and children as young as 10 were sterilized in North Carolina, yet fewer than 200 surviving victims have been identified by the state so far. That means each victim would receive a modest compensation of about $50,000. ...
There is a permanent stain on Virginia’s record. Yet North Carolina has shown how the cost of addressing an egregious justice on an individual level can be fiscally and politically achievable. Before it’s too late, Virginia must retake the moral high ground and compensate its surviving victims of eugenic sterilization.
Read the op-ed in theRichmond Times Dispatch here.
Update as of August 22: Lombardo and Hardin also have an op-ed in USA Today about the national movement for reparations.
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