CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Victims of North Carolinas forced sterilization program say they will fight to get compensation that will not be coming from the state legislature.

“They knew. They knew they was wrong, said Janice Black, who was still a teenager when she had the operation.

It took almost 40 years and the encouragement of her friend and legal guardian, Sadie Long, for Black to come forward as the first person in Charlotte say she had been in the eugenics program that may have sterilized thousands of people.

“She didn’t realize what she was signing because no one explained to her what the legal papers were,” Long said Thursday.

Gov. Bev Perdue had proposed paying victims a lump sum of $50,000 in compensation for their suffering. When lawmakers voted Wednesday on a budget that left that compensation package out, Long was disappointed.

“There are a lot of things in life you cannot change, and a lot of things we can’t do anything about and I understand that. But when you have the power to make some differences, you should — to show the people that you care enough about them,” she said.

The vote also took away funding for the state agency that has helped victims of the sterilization program.

The agency has identified 161 victims and said there could be thousands more, but without money, the agency has stopped taking information from new potential victims.

But Black and Long are not giving up.

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