She was 14. She gave birth. And without telling her, doctors took away her ability to ever have children. In 1968, Elaine Riddick was secretly sterilized by the medical system in North Carolina. She wouldn’t learn the truth until years later. She was one of over 60,000 people sterilized in the U.S. under state-backed eugenics programs. In North Carolina alone, nearly 40% were Black, despite being less than 25% of the population. This wasn’t a mistake. It was policy. Stories like Elaine’s remind