Railey on the sterilization victims finding the guts to tell their stories

When I first met Charles Holt of Kernersville in June, he was letting his beloved stepdaughter, Melissa Hyatt, tell the story of his forced sterilization by the Eugenics Board of North Carolina.

But since then, Charles, 62, has found the guts to tell his own story — to CNN and The New York Times. He's the latest in a long line of victims to tell their stories of being sterilized by the state. Their invaluable testimony stretches back to Nial Ramirez and Elaine Riddick, whom I first wrote about in 2002 as we revealed the inner workings of the sterilization program, which from 1929 through 1974 rendered barren some of our most vulnerable citizens.

Nial and Elaine have continued to speak out. And more victims have been coming forward. Each time, I'm impressed with their courage to talk candidly about such a personal, painful issue. As just one example, Annie Buelin of Surry County has been talking to us since 2003. Just last month, she stood up in Emmanuel Baptist Church in Winston-Salem and once again told her story of being sterilized as a young teenager. The state House speaker, Thom Tillis, met Annie at that service. Such personal connections are crucial.

The victims' stories have kept the issue alive for legislators, some of whom probably wish it would die. And their stories just finally may tip the balance in favor of compensation for them when the state legislature convenes for its regular session in May. The legislature could finally approve help, ending almost 10 years of false promises.

More legislators should join Tillis in listening to the victims.

Charles Holt had to undergo a vasectomy in the late 1960s when he was 18 and a resident of the Murdoch Center. Like thousands of others, he was termed "feeble-minded" as a justification for the operation. Just as so many other victims, his family was poor and powerless.

And just as with numerous other victims, it would be a while before Charles realized what the operation meant. When a doctor told him, Charles said, "I just sat down and I talked to God. … Yes sir, I was angry."

The state, in effect, had said he wasn't fit to have children. Like so many others, he proved the state wrong. In his case, he worked hard until a stroke slowed him. He helped raise several stepchildren. As Melissa Hyatt, one of his stepchildren, told the governor's task force considering compensation reccomendations, "Charles has the ability to be a great father, and his rights were taken away at an early age in life. … He would've made an awesome father, and the child would have had discipline and schooling. He knows how to take care of children. For he always has. He knows how to change diapers, cook, clean and, most important, he knows how to love."

Charles always wanted to father children. The operation "took a part of my life away," he told me last week.

Such victims' stories are keeping a national, even worldwide, spotlight on our state's consideration of compensation. If North Carolina approves compensation — the task force is considering a starting point of $20,000 for each living victim — we'd be the first state in the country to approve compensation for victims of a sterilization program. For that to happen, Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue and the Republican leadership in the legislature will have to come together.

Victims repeatedly tell me that $20,000 would not be nearly enough. But that figure, combined with free health care for life for the mental and physical ills left by the operations, would be a good start.

Because of Charles Holt and other courageous victims who've come forward, that start is getting closer every day.

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Thank you.