Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint "I remember the first time I learned about the Eugenics Survey of Vermont. I was a graduate student in history studying Native American land claims, and my thesis advisor found out that I was a Vermonter. She said, “You have to read Nancy Gallagher’s book, ‘Breeding Better Vermonters: The Eugenics Project in the Green Mountain State’, before you write another word.”
Her point was that as a scholar I couldn’t fully understand the critical context in which I was doing my work if I didn’t understand the Eugenics movements within my state. I did read it, and I was sickened by this dark chapter in our state’s history.
The Eugenics Survey of Vermont was led by University of Vermont zoology professor Henry Perkins, but the legislature supported this work by passing a law called the Act for Human Betterment through Voluntary Sterilization. It allowed sterilization of Vermonters (targeting Indigenous people, French-Canadians, and people who were mixed-race, poor or disabled), removed children from families, and it carried out a public propaganda campaign.
The Eugenics apology that we passed on the floor of the Senate today is long overdue. It doesn’t make things right. It doesn’t repair the damage done to individuals, families and communities. But it is still important that we publicly declare that the Eugenics Movement was horrific and abhorrent. And it’s even more important that we apologize for what a previous legislature did to their fellow Vermonters. Healing can only begin after a sincere apology and a commitment to do better."
MONTPELIER, VT - 5.12.2021