Genetically Inferior Children

A road trip kept me away from the internet for a few days, but I did take a picture to share with you while I was in Charlottesville, VA: a historical marker commemorating Carrie Buck and the Buck v Bell Supreme Court decision on sterilizing "genetically inferior" people.

Unlike Charlottesville's many other historical markers, this one is camouflaged under the trees at the bus stop just north of 8th St. NW on Preston Avenue.  Feel free to reproduce the picture and spread the word. 

In case you can't read it, it reads

BUCK v BELL

In 1924, Virginia, like a majority of states then, enacted eugenic sterilization laws.  Virginia's law allowed state institutions to operate on individuals to prevent the conception of what were believed to be "genetically inferior" children.  Charlottesville native Carrie Buck (1906-1983), involuntarily committed to a state facility near Lynchburg, was chosen as the first person to be sterilized under the new law.  The US Supreme Court in Buck v. Bell on 2 May, 1927, affirmed the Virginia law.  After Buck more than 8,000 other Virginians were sterilized before the most relevant parts of the act were repealed in 1974.  Later evidence eventually showed that Buck and many others had no "hereditary defects."  She is buried south of here.

During the trip I fell even farther behind on my weekly Economist, but I still think this article might interest you:

It's not news now that young women favor Obama by 20 points (58% to 38%). The Scarcer Sex also points out that, as I said, women vote in larger numbers than men.  Get out there and vote, young women!  Better yet, run for office.