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Eugenic States

Data Visualizations

In collaboration with the Sterilization and Social Justice Lab, the Digital Justice Lab at Dartmouth has developed a number of data stories and visualizations for our readers. Many of these are embedded within Eugenic States narrative paths. They are also collected here as a set.

When reading/looking at these visualizations, please keep in mind that we can only visualize the data that we have. As a result, we emphasize in our captions and titles that these are visualizations created with data from *known* sterilizations. It is possible and perhaps even likely that there were additional sterilizations in the states covered here that were not recorded or for which the records are lost to us. Additionally, we have testimony that entities like the U.S. Government's Indian Health Services conducted sterilizations but we do not have access to those records. Rather than consider these visualizations as authoritative documentation of the full breadth of sterilization under eugenic laws, we encourage readers and viewers to consider them as representations of a partial historical record.

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A graph of sterilizations by race in North Carolina. The dates range from 1937–1966 and the number of people sterilized ranges from 0 – 350. Those categorized as white are depicted by a gray line, which appears to indicate a higher rate of sterilization above other races from 1937–1956. After that, the rate of African Americans sterilized increases above that of white individuals. African Americans are classified by a dotted black line and Native Americans are a straight line with a black box in between. The rate of Native American sterilizations is relatively low; only a few appear in the years between 1956–1966. A graph of sterilizations by race in North Carolina. The dates range from 1937–1966 and the number of people sterilized ranges from 0 – 350. Those categorized as white are depicted by a gray line, which appears to indicate a higher rate of sterilization above other races from 1937–1956. After that, the rate of African Americans sterilized increases above that of white individuals. African Americans are classified by a dotted black line and Native Americans are a straight line with a black box in between. The rate of Native American sterilizations is relatively low; only a few appear in the years between 1956–1966.