Gov. Mike Easley apologized last night for the state's role in sterilizing more than 7,600 people through a eugenics program that lasted from 1929 to 1974.

"On behalf of the state I deeply apologize to the victims and their families for this past injustice, and for the pain and suffering they had to endure over the years," Easley said in a statement to the Winston-Salem Journal.

"This is a sad and regrettable chapter in the state's history, and it must be one that is never repeated again," he said.

The apology came in response to a Journal investigation into the Eugenics Board of North Carolina.

The five-part series, "Against Their Will," concluded yesterday.

The Wake Forest University School of Medicine also has formed a committee to investigate the school's role in the state eugenics movement in response to queries from the newspaper.

The eugenics movement made exaggerated claims that mental illness, genetic defects and social ills could be eliminated by sterilization. Children as young as 10 were sterilized under the state program, which was often characterized by coercion and flawed intelligence testing. By the 1960s, it mainly was targeting young black women. The North Carolina program was the third largest in the country, after California and Virginia.

Nial Cox Ramirez, 56, of River-dale, Ga., who was sterilized at age 18 in 1965, thanked Easley for the apology.

"That is good, that is very good. I appreciate that, I really do. That makes me real happy. What a long time. A long time coming, but it came," Ramirez said.

Bertha Dale Midgett Hymes, 52, sterilized when she was 17, said she forgives the state, "but I don't want them to do anybody else like that."

Elaine Riddick Jessie, 48, of Atlanta, who was sterilized at age 14 in 1968, said that the apology was "fantastic," but still had her doubts.

"They are embarrassed - I mean, they should be. I'm glad that they apologized, but do they really mean it?" Jessie asked.

Carmen Hooker Odom, the secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, joined Easley in offering an apology.

"As secretary, I want to be very forthright in issuing an apology on behalf of the department to all of the victims and their families," Hooker said. The eugenics board operated under previous agencies whose duties are now covered by the Health and Human Services Department.

Skip Alston of Greensboro, the president of the North Carolina branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said that an apology might not be enough.

"The state, if they allowed this to happen, they should do more than apologize," Alston said. "They should seek other remedies to correct that wrong in as much as possible ... reparations and whatever else might be deemed necessary or satisfactory to the victims."

Hooker Odom said: "On the face of it, it (reparations) would be something that I think the state should consider, but since I'm not a lawyer ... I don't know what that would entail. But these people were harmed irreparably through a policy that may not have been endorsed by the governors of that time or the state agencies. My heart says that these people were greatly harmed."

Earlier this year, Virginia became the first state in the nation to apologize for its sterilization program, and Oregon followed suit last week.

The Journal gained access to thousands of records from the eugenics board, but many more are still under seal in the state archives. Until the newspaper's investigation, few details had been known about the sterilization program. More than 2,000 people age 18 and under were sterilized in many questionable cases, including a 10-year-old who was castrated. The Journal has made a formal request for access to all the records.

Hooker Odom said that she does not think any further investigation is necessary, and the records that detail the program could be opened only if the privacy of the victims can be guaranteed.

Yesterday, several religious and secular leaders had joined victims in asking for an apology.

The Rev. Jerry Pereira of Swannanoa, the president of the state's largest group of Christians, the 1.2 million-member Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, condemned the sterilization program.

"That policy was morally bankrupt, ethically flawed.... It's just terrible," Pereira said. He emphasized that he was speaking personally and not for the convention.

"Unless we know history, we cannot in the future avoid errors that were made," said Jack Fleer, a professor of political science at Wake Forest University.

"In this particular instance it appears errors were made," Fleer said. "And I think somebody has to explain that or justify it."

• Danielle Deaver can be reached at 727-7279 or at ddeaver@wsjournal.com

• John Railey can be reached at 727-7288 or at jrailey@wsjournal.com

• Kevin Begos can be reached in Washington at (202) 662-7672 or at kbegos@mediageneral.com