news-record.com

In a state budget full of spending cuts, one line item contains a small spending increase that represents a significant victory for two Winston-Salem Democrats.

State Reps. Larry Womble and Earline Parmon have been fighting for years to pass a law that would give financial reparations to living victims of a state-sponsored sterilization program that lasted from 1929 to 1974.

So far, they have been unsuccessful, but the 2009-10 budget contains $250,000 for the creation of a foundation for sterilization victims. That foundation, supporters say, would eventually be used to pay out reparations.

If the budget passes and is signed into law -- which appears all but certain -- it will be the first time that the state has allocated any money toward Womble and Parmon's effort to give reparations. A bill they filed this year called for each victim to receive $20,000 as compensation from the state.

The inclusion of the line item in the budget came as somewhat of a surprise, because chief budget writers had previously indicated that it would not make it into the final budget.

''I'm satisfied to a great degree," Womble said yesterday. "There's still work to be done on the compensation piece."

While the sterilization program was in effect, a state board known as the Eugenics Board authorized the medical sterilizations of more than 7,600 people, often because they were considered mentally ill, mentally disabled or sexually promiscuous.