RALEIGH - In 1968, Rep. John Conyers introduced a bill calling for recognition of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday with a federal holiday. Fifteen years later, it became law.

Now, a North Carolina legislator thinks he might be facing the same sort of long-term fight -- this time to compensate the victims of North Carolina's eugenic sterilization program.

"I'm going to be just like [U.S. Rep.] John Conyers," Rep. Larry Womble said Friday. "He kept filing that bill, year after year. And as you and everybody else ought to know, eventually it passed."

Womble reintroduced a bill May 18 calling for the state to compensate people sterilized under a state program that aimed to cleanse the gene pool of disabilities and certain diseases. The idea, once widely accepted, was known as eugenics. North Carolina maintained an active program from about 1929 to 1974, long after other states had slowed or shut down their programs.

North Carolina's program led to the sterilization of at least 7,600 people. According to Womble's bill, 99 percent of those sterilized were women and 60 percent were black. State Eugenics Board records indicate that more than 80 percent of those sterilized were women and most who were sterilized were recipients of some form of public assistance, according to a researcher who has analyzed the records.

In Wake County, some of the area's most prominent physicians sterilized patients at hospitals such as St. Agnes, Rex and Dorothea Dix.

Statewide, there are thought to be about 2,800 living victims of the state's sterilization program.

Gov. Mike Easley apologized for the state's program in 2002. A study committee later recommended that the state compensate men and women sterilized under the program.

Womble, a six-term Winston-Salem Democrat, first introduced a victim compensation bill in May 2005. It died in committee without receiving a hearing or floor vote. A bill that fails in committee or never receives a hearing can be forced to a vote on the House floor. But the process is long and difficult, and it signals confrontation with the House leadership, Womble said.

Last session, House Speaker Jim Black's office told Womble to introduce the bill without committing Black's support. Womble said he has not approached Black about the bill this year.

Black's office did not respond Friday to a request for comment on the bill.

"We are talking about compensation here for something the state did to its own citizens," Womble said. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out why that makes people nervous."

The eugenics issue will have to draw more public attention for the victim compensation bill to get a vote on the House floor, said Durham County Democratic Rep. Paul Luebke.

"Just because the state has done something immoral, something ethically wrong, it does not automatically follow that it will take responsibility and compensate its victims." he said.

Womble's latest bill calls for each victim to receive $20,000 from a $69.1 million victim compensation fund. The fund would be managed by the state treasurer and subject to the oversight of the state auditor. Victim identities would be verified by the state Department of Health and Human Services. The agency controls the state Eugenics Board's records. They have remained virtually sealed for three decades.

There are signs that the bill might be gaining strength. Womble's first compensation bill had just two sponsors and four co-sponsors, including Wake County Democrat Rep. Bernard Allen and Luebke. This year, the bill has three sponsors and 18 co-sponsors.

Early next week, Womble will call for a committee hearing on the bill.

(News researcher Brooke Cain contributed to this report.)

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