Eugenics: The Well-Born Science · Episode 9 of 9 · 34 min
The Secret Rebranding of Eugenics: Sterilization into the 1970s
Eugenics did not end in 1945. The word became toxic while sterilizations continued into the 1970s, with the Indian Health Service sterilizing thousands of Native women, the Relf v. Weinberger case exposing coerced sterilization of poor people, and state programs in North Carolina and California. The finale follows slow apologies and reparations and returns to George Grant's brain.
Who's who
- Lonnie G. Bunch III+1 more episodeSmithsonian Secretary who issued the 2023 apology
- George Grant+1 more episodeTlingit boy whose brain was returned in 2007
Where it happens
- Montgomery, AlabamaWhere two sisters were sterilized in 1973
- North Carolina+1 more episodeFirst state to compensate sterilization survivors
- California+30 more episodesAuthorized reparations for survivors in 2021
Timeline
- 1970-1976Indian Health Service sterilizes thousands of Native women
- 1973Relf sisters sterilized in Alabama; SPLC files Relf v. Weinberger
- 2002Virginia apologizes for sterilizations
- 2007George Grant's brain returned to his family
- 2013North Carolina approves compensation, the first state to do so
- 2023Washington Post investigation and Smithsonian apology
Still debated
Estimates of Indian Health Service sterilizations range from thousands documented by the GAO to scholarly extrapolations of far higher shares of Native women. Reparations vary by state and leave many survivors out, and linking modern genetics debates to old eugenics is interpretive.