N.C. Eugenics Surviors (17 images)

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Portraits of some of the survivors of North Carolina's eugenics program which involved state mandated sterilization by choice or coercion from 1933-1973.
  • Willis Lynch was just 14-years-old when he was sterilized at a state training school in Kinston, N.C., in the late 1940's. At the time the Eugenics Board had declared that no ward of the Caswell Training School, "should be released before being sterilized, except in the few instances where normal children have been committed through error." Willis was sent to the training school by his mother, who was overwhelmed with caring for seven children on welfare.

  • Willis Lynch was just 14-years-old when he was sterilized at a state training school in Kinston, N.C., in the late 1940's. At the time the Eugenics Board had declared that no ward of the Caswell Training School, "should be released before being sterilized, except in the few instances where normal children have been committed through error." Willis was sent to the training school by his mother, who was overwhelmed with caring for seven children on welfare.

  • Willis Lynch was just 14-years-old when he was sterilized at a state training school in Kinston, N.C., in the late 1940's. At the time the Eugenics Board had declared that no ward of the Caswell Training School, "should be released before being sterilized, except in the few instances where normal children have been committed through error." Willis was sent to the training school by his mother, who was overwhelmed with caring for seven children on welfare.

  • A photo of Willis Lynch when he was 23, nearly ten years after being sterilized by the State of Norrth Carolina.

  • Eugenics Board state historical marker in Raleigh, N.C.

  • Elaine Riddick inside her apartment in Atlanta, Georgia, March 22, 2010. Nearly 40 years ago Elaine Riddick was forcibly sterilized by the state of North Carolina at Chowan Hospital in Edenton after giving birth to her one and only child - the result of a vicious rape. It would be several years before she learned that she had been unknowingly "butchered" at the age of 14 following the birth.

  • Elaine Riddick inside her apartment in Atlanta, Georgia, March 22, 2010. Nearly 40 years ago Elaine Riddick was forcibly sterilized by the state of North Carolina at Chowan Hospital in Edenton after giving birth to her one and only child - the result of a vicious rape. It would be several years before she learned that she had been unknowingly "butchered" at the age of 14 following the birth.

  • Elaine Riddick inside her apartment in Atlanta, Georgia, March 22, 2010. Nearly 40 years ago Elaine Riddick was forcibly sterilized by the state of North Carolina at Chowan Hospital in Edenton after giving birth to her one and only child - the result of a vicious rape. It would be several years before she learned that she had been unknowingly "butchered" at the age of 14 following the birth.

  • Elaine Riddick inside her apartment in Atlanta, Georgia, March 22, 2010. Nearly 40 years ago Elaine Riddick was forcibly sterilized by the state of North Carolina at Chowan Hospital in Edenton after giving birth to her one and only child - the result of a vicious rape. It would be several years before she learned that she had been unknowingly "butchered" at the age of 14 following the birth.

  • Elaine Riddick inside her apartment in Atlanta, Georgia, March 22, 2010. Nearly 40 years ago Elaine Riddick was forcibly sterilized by the state of North Carolina at Chowan Hospital in Edenton after giving birth to her one and only child - the result of a vicious rape. It would be several years before she learned that she had been unknowingly "butchered" at the age of 14 following the birth.

  • Elaine Riddick inside her apartment in Atlanta, Georgia, March 22, 2010. Nearly 40 years ago Elaine Riddick was forcibly sterilized by the state of North Carolina at Chowan Hospital in Edenton after giving birth to her one and only child - the result of a vicious rape. It would be several years before she learned that she had been unknowingly "butchered" at the age of 14 following the birth.

  • Elaine Riddick inside her apartment in Atlanta, Georgia, March 22, 2010. Nearly 40 years ago Elaine Riddick was forcibly sterilized by the state of North Carolina at Chowan Hospital in Edenton after giving birth to her one and only child - the result of a vicious rape. It would be several years before she learned that she had been unknowingly "butchered" at the age of 14 following the birth.

  • Nial Cox Ramirez inside her apartment in Union City, Georgia, March 22, 2010. In 1964 Ramirez was 18 and pregnant from a poor family when a white social worker approached her and said that she needed to agree to sterilization or her family would lose their welfare benefits.

  • Nial Cox Ramirez inside her apartment in Union City, Georgia, March 22, 2010. In 1964 Ramirez was 18 and pregnant from a poor family when a white social worker approached her and said that she needed to agree to sterilization or her family would lose their welfare benefits.

  • Nial Cox Ramirez inside her apartment in Union City, Georgia, March 22, 2010. In 1964 Ramirez was 18 and pregnant from a poor family when a white social worker approached her and said that she needed to agree to sterilization or her family would lose their welfare benefits.

  • Nial Cox Ramirez inside her apartment in Union City, Georgia, March 22, 2010. In 1964 Ramirez was 18 and pregnant from a poor family when a white social worker approached her and said that she needed to agree to sterilization or her family would lose their welfare benefits.

  • Nial Cox Ramirez inside her apartment in Union City, Georgia, March 22, 2010. In 1964 Ramirez was 18 and pregnant from a poor family when a white social worker approached her and said that she needed to agree to sterilization or her family would lose their welfare benefits.