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| Dr. James H. Bell was the superintendent at the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded. |
Media Advisory
WHO: Delegate Patrick Hope
WHAT: Call on Governor McDonnell and the General Assembly to Compensate Sterilization Victims
WHEN: Monday, August 6, 2012, 2PM
WHERE: House Briefing Room - General Assembly Building - Richmond, VA
RICHMOND- This year marks the 85th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Buck v. Bell decision, which upheld Virginia’s 1924 eugenics sterilization law, a model law used by many other states to sterilize their people. Under this law, Virginia forcibly sterilized 7,500 of its citizens they considered "undesirable," in the name of building a better society. Ten years ago, Governor Mark R. Warner issued a formal apology for the state's decision to sterilize thousands of Virginians. Today we call on Governor Bob McDonnell and the Virginia General Assembly to build upon this apology by providing a symbolic payment to the victims who are still alive.
It is both emblematic and responsible for Virginia to take the lead again on the issue of eugenics sterilization, but this time in becoming the first state to provide relief to the victims. It is appropriate for Virginia to set this example. We call on Gov. Bob McDonnell and the Virginia General Assembly to provide a symbolic payment to those victims of sterilization who are still alive. Compensating these individuals is the just and right thing to do.
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| Carrie Buck was a patient who was compulsorily sterilized. |
