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John Railey was part of a team of reporters at the Winston-Salem Journal who in 2002 revealed the inner workings of the state’s eugenics program.
From 1929, when the legislature established the program, to 1974, when it was ended, North Carolina sterilized more than 7,600 men, women and children.
Though it’s been more than a decade since the Journal published its findings, Railey has never let go of the story. He became the Journal’s editorial-page editor in 2010 and advocated for compensation for the victims. Now he has written a book that traces the victims’ fight for reparations, “Rage to Redemption in the Sterilization Age” (Cascade Books).
For years the sterilization program was considered a forward-thinking approach to prevent those who were institutionalized or on welfare from having children.
Railey, 54, grew up in Virginia, graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and has worked at the Journal since 1997. He said he wrote the book to remember the victims, including his friend Nial Cox Ramirez, who was sterilized in 1965 when she was 18 years old and living in rural...