Exhibit Explores Eugenics

N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Interactive Eugenics Exhibit was displayed in the F.L. Atkins building on Aug. 8. The exhibit, which exposes the sterilization practices used to control reproduction in the state, continues through January.

In 1929, the eugenics program was introduced as a vision for improving society by preventing unfit individuals from reproducing. The criteria for the "unfit" was set by the state and included people with criminal tendencies, "feeble minds", epilepsy, and other disabilities.

According to the exhibit, the eugenics program had been expanded to include other "social symptoms" such as "poverty, promiscuity, alcoholism, and illegitimacy."

Winston-Salem has a disturbing history with the eugenics program. In a recent series of articles in the Winston-Salem Journal on the state's sterilization program, Kevin Begos writes that "prominent residents of Winston-Salem used their influence to revive the state's eugenics program," at a time when the number of sterilizations was decreasing in North Carolina. These elite formed a group called the Human Betterment League.

The League began to garner more support after some WSSU students were given IQ tests. "IQ tests revealed that an alarming number of Winston-Salem students were considered [to be] 'feebleminded'," Begos wrote. These results gained more supporters, including local newspapers, which resulted in more sterilization.

The exhibit reveals the history of the eugenics program with 20 three-foot-wide panels, a display of surgical instruments used in sterilizations, and voice recordings of individuals who were subjected to this practice.

Nial Cox Ramirez, an 18-year-old mother, gave a detailed account of her sterilization experience. Ramirez was given the choice to be sterilized or have her mother's assistance benefits taken away. Not wanting her brothers and sister to suffer, Nial was sterilized. A large number of black people were sterilized, but many whites, such as Bertha Dale Hymes, were forced to undergo the procedure as well.