(Photo origin: http:\/\/www.wsh.dmhmrsas.virginia.gov\/images\/photoofoldsite.jpg<\/a>) <\/p> Patients were also sterilized the Western State Hospital in Staunton, Virginia under the supervision of Joseph S. DeJarnette. The hospital opened in 1825 as the Western Lunatic Asylum, but its name was changed in 1894 to the Western State Hospital. Western State was the second largest sterilization institution, after Lynchburg (Brocato 2008, p. 113). There is no mention of sterilization on any official webpages, but the Western State Hospital still functions as a psychiatric hospital.<\/p> (Photo origin: http:\/\/www.gotghost.net\/images\/P3010134.JPG<\/a>)<\/p> With less frequency, sterilization occurred at Virginias Central State Mental Hospital in Petersburg, which stopped treating intellectual disability patients in 1971, but continues as a rehabilitation facility under the name Central State Hospital.<\/p> (Photo origin: http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eastern_State_Hospital<\/a>)<\/p> Sterilizations also took place at Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, which is still functioning and claims to be America's first psychiatric hospital, and at Southwestern State Hospital in Marion as well (Black 2003, p. 4). Now a museum, the original hospital built in 1773 has been rebuilt on excavated foundations.<\/p> Southwestern State Hospital, originally called Southwestern Lunatic Asylum, is now called Southwestern Virginia Mental Health Institute. These institutions make no reference to their history in sterilization. <\/p> Commemoration <\/p> In 2002, a marker was erected to commemorate those sterilized under the Virginia sterilization law. The marker was erected by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. The marker number is Q-28. It reads: In 1924, Virginia, like a majority of states then, enacted eugenic sterilization laws. Virginias 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 (19061983), involuntarily committed to a state facility near Lynchburg, was chosen as the first person to be sterilized under the new law. The U.S. 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 After Buck more than 8,000 other Virginians were sterilized before the most relevant parts of the Act were repealed in 1974.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 (Lombardo 2008a). <\/p> Thelocation of the marker is 382.202N, 7829.303W. It is located in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Preston Avenue (U.S. 250) 0.2 miles south of Grady Avenue (U.S. 250), on the left when traveling north. The approx. address is 800 Preston Avenue, Charlottesville, Virginia. <\/p> Opposition <\/p> Opposition outside of the Catholic Church appears to have been minimal throughout Virginia. While Catholics opposed sterilization in any form because such mutilation is in direct violation of Natural Law, it seems that the strong Protestant, white supremacist ideology present throughout much of the South allowed for eugenic sterilizations to go nearly unquestioned (Windle 1965, p. 308). Very little information pertaining to the opposition to sterilization is available prior to Charles Windles case study on the passage of sterilization legislation in Virginia during the 1962 legislative session. During this session, a bill requiring the compulsory sterilization of women with more than one illegitimate child who is also receiving welfare benefits died in committee debate (Windle 1965, pp. 306-7). While the compulsory sterilization proposal failed, a voluntary sterilization bill during the same session passed by a large margin (Windle 1965, p. 307). It is important to note that this legislation was considered nearly forty years after sterilization was first legalized in Virginia and public opinion allowed for compulsory sterilization in 1924. Additionally, at the time these bills were considered, sterilization legislation was still on the books in Virginia. Even the Buck v. Bell case had little to do with any opposition to sterilization. Rather, this case was a ploy by eugenicists to set a nationwide standard of sterilization legality by taking appeals to the United States Supreme Court (Claude Moore Health Sciences Library).Moreover, Virginia is a traditionally agrarian state and sterilization legislation (when considered in 1962) was widely supported by individuals concerned with race relations and welfare in poorer, nonurban areas with high proportions of nonwhites and of agricultural and manufacturing employment (Windle 1965, p. 314). The number of sterilizations that continued to occur into the 1970s is a testament to the stronghold of eugenic ideology throughout the state. <\/p> Bibliography: <\/p> Brocato, Amanda D. 2008. The Campaign for Eugenics in Virginia: The Influence of Dr. J.S. DeJarnette. Augusta Historical Bulletin. pp 105-117. Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, University of Virginia Health System. \"Eugenics: Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Virginia, Eugenics, and Buck v. Bell.\" Available at Dorr, Gregory Michael. 2008. Segregations Science: Eugenics and Society in Virginia. Rev Ed: Charlottesville: The University of Virginia Press. Landman, J. H. 1932. Human Sterilization: The History of the Sexual Sterilization Movement. New York: MacMillan. Largent, Mark A. 2008. Breeding Contempt: The History of Coerced Sterilizatioin in the United States. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Lombardo, Paul. \"Eugenic Sterilization Laws.\" Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement. Available at Lombardo, Paul A. 2008b. Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell. Rev. Ed. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. <\/p> Noll, Steven. 2005. The Public Face of Southern Institutions for the Feeble-Minded. The Public Historian 27, 2: 25-42. <\/p> Noll, Steven. 1995. Feeble-Minded in Our Midst: Institutions for the Mentally Retarded in the South, 1900-1940. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. <\/p> Paul, Julius. 1965. Three Generations of Imbeciles Are Enough: State Eugenic Sterilization Laws in American Thought and Practice. Unpublished manuscript. Washington, D.C.: Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. <\/p> Trent, James W. Jr. 1994. Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Mental Retardation in the United States. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Windle, Charles. 1965. \"Factors in the Passage of Sterilization Legislation: The Case of Virginia.\" The Public Opinion Quarterly 29, 2: 306-14. <\/p> <\/p> Visit link: <\/p> Virginia Eugenics - University of Vermont<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Number of victims In total, 7325 individuals were sterilized in Virginia under its sterilization law. Of those sterilized about half were deemed mentally ill and the other half deemed mentally deficient. 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