Slavery And Eugenics In North Carolina

   There is an interesting movement among some North Carolina legislators to introduce a few bills which would attempt to fix  some of the social injustices of the past. The ideas are good to an extent. The eugenics victims should have their cash outlay but I'm not to sure about the new rules that the companies working for the state have to follow.

   Below are the House Bills

                                

    House Bill 298

    This bill  would require companies doing business  with the state to examine their corporate records for evidence they benefited from slavery. 

   House Bill 296

    This bill  would compensate the victims who were pretty much forced into sterilization programs between 1929 and 1974. It is estimated that some 7,600 people were sterilized in the state of North Carolina during those years.  The compensation could be up to $50,000.

Greensboro News & Record

As drafted, the slavery bill would allow a state agency to break its contract with a contractor if that company fails to complete a state-mandated affidavit. That record would attest as to whether the company or its predecessors profited from the practice of slavery in the United States.

The eugenics bill deals with a more recent part of the state's history.
    Earlier this decade, Gov. Mike Easley apologized for the practice on behalf of the state. Under what is now viewed as a completely misguided theory, eugenics proponents sought to strengthen society and cure social ills by preventing those considered "unfit" from having children.
"It was racially targeted, and to a certain degree, class targeted," Jones said.
The bill would set aside nearly $173 million to pay claims made before June 30, 2010.

 

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