Sterilization

By hmcdaniel

  • 1880

    An American doctor tied a woman's Fallopian tubes for the first time during a Cesarean operation in Toledo, Ohio.

  • 1883

    1883
    foung eugenics

  • 1894

    Vasectomy introduced as an alternative to castration as a method of sterilizing males.

  • 1899

    Indiana reform school superintendent Harry Sharp used vasectomy for eugenic sterilization for the first time.

  • 1907

    Indiana became the first state to enact a sterilization law

  • 1919

    The North Carolina General Assembly passed a weak sterilization law. No known sterilizations were performed under this statute.

  • 1929

    Thirty states passed sterilization laws, including North Carolina, which passed the N.C. Sterilization Act in 1929.

  • 1933

    As a result of a lawsuit filed by Forsyth County resident Mary Brewer, the N.C. Supreme Court ruled that the Sterilization Act was unconstitutional, citing lack of public hearings or a notification process.

  • 1934

    The N.C. General Assembly approved an overhauled sterilization law modeled after a similar law in Virginia that had passed muster by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law set the membership of the Eugenics Board of North Carolina at five. It also authorized sterilizations of the feeble-minded, mentally diseased and epileptics.

  • 1935

    Wickliffe Draper, an eccentric philanthrophist who bankrolled racial research, attended a conference on eugenics in Nazi Germany.

  • 1935

    The N.C. General Assembly made the first small appropriation to the Eugenics Board for expenses.

  • 1937

    1937
    The N.C. General Assembly amended the sterilization law to read that a county superintendent of public welfare may act as prosecutor or petitioner in instituting sterilizations.

  • 1937

    Wickliffe Draper founded the Pioneer Fund to support scientific research on race differences.

  • 1938

    Dr. Clarence Gamble worked with Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger on the "Negro Project," an effort that led to North Carolina providing the first government-sponsored birth control program in the nation.

  • 1941

    the department of medical genetics is founded at the Bowman Gray school of Medicine.

  • 1943

    1943
    Director of Medical genetics

  • 1944

    A sterilization program in Forsyth County - separate from the state program - operates with the approval of county commissioners

  • 1944

    1944
    Dr. Ellen Winston named commisioner of public welfare on NC

  • 1945

    Dr. Clarence Gamble, heir to the Procter & Gamble fortune, contributed $6,000 to the Eugenics Board to study the need for sterilizations in North Carolina and later paid for IQ studies of schoolchildren and sterilizations in Orange County.

  • 1945

    World War II ended. Revelations about Nazi atrocities - including eugenic research, forced sterilizations and concentration camps - begin circulating around the world.

  • 1947

    The General Assembly approved the hiring of a full-time executive secretary for the Eugenics Board.

  • 1947

    For the first time, the number of sterilizations in North Carolina performed on members of the general public exceeded the number performed on inmates and patients in state institutions. With the exception of the 1950-52 biennial reporting period, the number of institutional sterilizations would never again exceed the number performed on members of the general public.

  • 1948

    The Human Betterment League of North Carolina started its efforts to promote eugenic sterilization in the state. The membership of the league included James G. Hanes and Alice Shelton Gray, both prominent citizens of Forsyth County.

  • 1948

    Dr. Clarence Gamble paid for the research costs of Moya Woodside's book Sterilization in North Carolina and for distributing 2,000 copies of a manual spelling out the policies of the Eugenics Board to social and health agencies.

  • 1953

    Wickliffe Draper donated $100,000 to the Bowman-Gray Genetics Program

  • 1959

    The number of blacks sterilized under North Carolina's program exceeded the number of whites sterilized for the first time.

  • 1961

    Sue Casebolt becomes executive secretary of the Eugenics Board

  • 1996

    Pioneer Fund grant recipients contribute research to The Bell Curve, a book that ignited a national controversy over science that examines differences between the races.

  • 1972

    Tom Ellis, a political ally of U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., is named a director of the Pioneer Fund.

  • 1974

    The Eugenics Board of North Carolina is disbanded.

  • 1983

    Jessie-Riddick and Cox-Ramirez lost their civil lawsuit against the state of North Carolina.

  • 2002

    Virginia Gov. Mark Warner issued a statement of regret to the over 8,000 victims of its eugenics program in May. %u2022 Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber apologized in December for his state's eugenics law that led to the forced sterilizations of over 2,000 people.