In later years of the program, more African Americans than Caucasians were sterilized, but the program did not set out to target a specific race. In the thirties and forties, only 23 percent of those sterilized under the program were African American, but this is almost certainly due to the fact that they were excluded from the welfare rolls during that time. In the late fifties, 59 percent of those sterilized were African American and the number grew to 64 percent in the mid-sixties.
The last sterilization took place in 1974. The records of the Eugenics Board were sealed until 1996, when researcher Dr. Johanna Schoen, currently an associate professor at Rutgers University, was given access to the board’s redacted records. Her research inspired a series of articles titled “Against Their Will” in the Winston-Salem Journal, bringing the Eugenics Program back into public awareness. The values of the past suddenly collided with those of the present.
While many of the victims had died by that time, as many as two thousand were still living, prompting a public apology from then governor Mike Easley. An apology, however, was not enough, and when Governor Bev Perdue took office in 2008, she created the North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, which on June 22, 2011, held a hearing where victims or their loved ones could tell their stories. It’s at this hearing that Ivy and Jane are preparing to testify in the final chapter of Necessary Lies. You can watch the actual hearing on the Internet at http://www.wral.com/news/video/9755940/#/vid9755940.
After the hearing, the foundation recommended compensation of fifty thousand dollars per living victim. Governor Perdue announced she would put $10.3 million in her proposed budget to fund this compensation and the other work of the foundation, stating: “We cannot change the terrible things that happened to so many of our most vulnerable citizens, but we can take responsibility for our state’s mistakes and show that we do not tolerate violations of basic human rights. We must provide meaningful assistance to victims, so I am including this funding in my budget.” The bill providing for compensation was easily approved by the North Carolina House, but the Senate refused to support the plan. At the time of this writing, plans for compensation remain in limbo.
Meanwhile, although some of the victims are only in their fifties, many are elderly and ill. As of this writing, the foundation continues trying to identify people who were sterilized without their knowledge or understanding. It’s estimated that about eighteen hundred are still living. So far, about one hundred and fifty have come forward.
I chose not to sensationalize the Eugenics Program in Necessary Lies. I easily could have. Many of the cases border on the incomprehensible, such as a twelve-year-old girl sterilized because she was overly interested in boys and hard to control at home, or the teenaged girl who was molested by her father, who signed his consent for her sterilization himself. Instead, Ivy’s and Mary Ella’s and Lita’s cases were more the norm, and I think by making that point, all the more horrific.
Diane Chamberlain
Raleigh, North Carolina
2012
ALSO BY DIANE CHAMBERLAIN
The Good Father
The Midwife’s Confession
The Lies We Told
Secrets She Left Behind
Before the Storm
The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes
The Bay at Midnight
Her Mother’s Shadow
The Journey Home (anthology)
Kiss River
The Courage Tree
Keeper of the Light
Cypress Point/The Shadow Wife
Summer’s Child
Breaking the Silence
The Escape Artist
Reflection
Lovers and Strangers
Fire and Rain
Private Relations
Secret Lives
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DIANE CHAMBERLAIN is the international bestselling author of twenty-two novels. She lives in North Carolina with her partner, photographer John Pagliuca, and her shelties, Keeper and Cole. Visit her online at www.dianechamberlain.com.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
NECESSARY LIES. Copyright © 2013 by Diane Chamberlain Books, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Chamberlain, Diane, 1950–
Necessary lies / Diane Chamberlain. — 1st ed.
p. cm
ISBN 978-1-250-01069-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-01070-4 (e-book)
1. Social workers—Fiction. 2. Friendship—Fiction. 3. North Carolina—Fiction. 4. Domestic fiction. I. Title.
PS3553.H2485N47 2013
813'.54—dc23
2013013951
e-ISBN 9781250010704
First Edition: September 2013