In 1973, in the heart of Montgomery, Alabama, two young Black sisters—Mary Alice and Minnie Relf—were subjected to an irreversible medical procedure they never consented to. At just 14 and 12 years old, the girls were forcibly sterilized by a federally funded clinic. Their mother, who could neither read nor write, had unknowingly signed a…
In 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision in Buck v. Bell that has since remained one of the most controversial in American legal history. The case centered around Carrie Buck, a young woman from Virginia who was forcibly sterilized after being diagnosed with “feeblemindedness.” The Case of Carrie Buck Carrie Buck’s story…