Eugenics laws led to sterilization of 7,600 North Carolinians; only 41 survivors identified
Janice Black’s crooked signature crawls across the consent form. She didn’t know what kind of paper she was signing. Her name was the only thing she knew how to write.
It was 1971. She was 18. Janice’s IQ had tested out at 44. Her estimated mental age was 7. Her family decided she wasn’t fit to raise children.
Her stepmother took her to Charlotte Memorial Hospital. Janice didn’t know why. She didn’t feel sick.
She woke in a hospital bed. She tried to get up, and it hurt. She looked and saw an incision from her belly button on down.
The state of North Carolina had sterilized her.
Between 1929 and 1974, the state - through the N.C. Eugenics Board - authorized the sterilizations of some 7,600 North Carolinians who were classified as mentally ill, epileptic or “feebleminded.”
Now, key state officials are leading an effort to compensate people who were sterilized, under the idea that many of the operations were medically unnecessary and morally wrong. But after more than a year of searching, the state has matched just 41 survivors to its records.
Deep in the archives, they found Janice Black’s name.
She is 59 now. She lives in a house off The Plaza with the family of Sadie Gilmore Long, her longtime friend and legal guardian. Janice works three days a week and sings in her church choir and laughs at “Meet the Browns” on TV.
She tries not to think about the past. It left a scar.
“Sometimes I wish I hadn’t been born, you know what I’m saying?” she says. “Sometimes I - what I feel like - that I wasn’t treated fairly. Like I was a human being. I was treated like I’m not no human being.”