Elaine Riddick Jessie (born Elaine Riddick in 1954) is an African-American woman who, as a 14-year-old girl in 1968, was forcibly sterilized by the Eugenics Board of North Carolina, which argued that she was "feebleminded" and "promiscuous."
Prior to the sterilization (at age 13), Jessie had been kidnapped, molested, and raped. Her son, Tony Riddick, states, "The work of the Eugenics Board was not far from the thinking of Hitler."
Jessie was living with her grandmother, Maggie "Miss Peaches" Woodard, when a social worker discovered her pregnancy. The illiterate Woodard signed an X on a consent form, not knowing what it was, only that if she didn't sign, Elaine would be sent to an orphanage. The Perquimans County Department of Public Welfare had earlier custody of Jessie and her 7 siblings (from their alcoholic parents), sending 5 to an orphanage, and Elaine and one of her sisters to live with Woodard.
In March 2003 Mrs. Jessie and other victims of the Eugenics Board spoke out against the atrocities committed to the Eugenics Study Committee. As she said "When you're a little girl, what do you want? You want to be a mommy. To find out that's been taken away from you is devastating.". She was prominent in the celebrations at the law's repeal.
Famous quotes containing the word jessie:
“He doesn’t want you for friends, that’s why he did it. You see, when guys have been in the line as long as we have, you find out it’s no good to make friends, ‘cause when a friend gets it—well, it’s rough on you. The buddies that come with you you’re stuck with, but you don’t make no new ones. It’s the dyin’ truth.”
—Gil Doud, U.S. screenwriter, and Jessie Hibbs. Johnson (Marshall Thompson)