RELEASE OF DOCUMENTS The N.C. Department of Cultural Resources released 1,466 pages of documents related to the state’s eugenics program to the Winston-Salem Journal last week. Reporters first requested the documents last summer as they worked on a five-day series about the eugenics program, “Against their Will.” State officials denied oral requests to turn over the records, which have been sealed since the 1970s. After the series was published in December, members of the N.C. State Archives staff met with the Journal to discuss how to release the documents. An agreement was struck in which specific requests would be submitted. Archives officials cited a need to protect the medical confidentiality of the victims and agreed to release the material after they blacked out identifying characteristics from the documents. It took four archives employees to edit and recopy every piece of paper. Some documents will never be published. Case files of the program’s 7,600 victims contain medical and psychological information that will not be released. The 1,446 pages released last week represent about 1 percent of the estimated 100,000 documents from the Eugenics Board of North Carolina.

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