srocco@newsobserver.com

Elaine Riddick, 57, right, hugs Australia Clay after the Eugenics Compensation Task Force announced their recommendation during a meeting on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 in Raleigh, that people sterilized under a discredited state program should each receive $50,000. Riddick, and Clay's mother were both victims. The legislature must still approve any payments but this is the first time the state would compensate surviving victims of its eugenics program. Around 7,600 people were sterilized by choice, force, or coercion between 1929 and 1974.

A House bill introduced Wednesday would offer $50,000 to people ordered sterilized under the authority of the state Eugenics Board.

The board authorized thousands of sterilizations from 1933 to 1974. Rep. Larry Womble, a Winston-Salem Democrat, has been working for years for victim compensation. House Speaker Thom Tillis took up the cause last year.

Under the bill, the state Industrial Commission would determine individuals' eligibilty. Eligible people would receive the $50,000 tax free.

An initial committee meeting on the bill is scheduled for Tuesday.

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House eugenics bill gives $50,000 to victims