One way to get rid of people was to petition to have them declared feeble-minded and locked away. That's what happened to 17-year-old Carrie Buck in 1924. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about the Supreme Court case, Buck v. Bell, that led to Buck's sterilization, and the sterilization of a voiceless many under the banner of eugenics. And hey, it's still on the books so. . . ugh.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

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Cohen, Adam. Imbeciles: the Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck. Penguin Press, 2017.

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Johnson, Corey G. “Female Inmates Sterilized in California Prisons without Approval.” Reveal, 7 July 2013, www.revealnews.org/article/female-inmates-sterilized-in-california-prisons-without-approval/.

Lombardo, Paul A. Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.

Okrent, Daniel. Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and... Other European Immigrants out of America. Scribner, 2020.

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