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RALEIGH, (SGRToday.com) - It is a stain on the state's history, but now, efforts are well underway to compensate the living victims of North Carolina's eugenics program, under which several thousand North Carolinians were forcibly sterilized against their will.
The state believes nearly 7,600 people were sterilized and that roughly 3,000 are still alive.
The program officially operated well into the 1970s.
Last year, the Republican-led General Assembly passed Senate Bill 402. The bill, signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory, appropriated $10 million in compensation to be divided equally amongst the total number of certified claimants.
The deadline to apply for compensation is June 20, according to the stae Department of Administration's Office of Justice for Sterilization Victims, which oversees the program.
As of March 31, 2014, the Office has received 376 claim forms from potential Eugenics Board sterilization victims. Nearly 200 of those claim forms have been forwarded to the state's Industrial Commission to determine whether the claimants are eligible for compensation.
For more information, including claim forms, call 919-807-4270.
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