Noted author gives presentations on eugenics

RALEIGH – Campbell Law School hosted and co-sponsored best-selling author and eugenics expert Edwin Black for two presentations on Wednesday.

Author of “War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race,” Black’s initial presentation at the North Carolina General Assembly in the Legislative Auditorium was delivered before a crowd of numerous state representatives, local media and victims of the state’s eugenics movement. He also spoke at the Campbell University RTP Campus to an audience of local attorneys and Campbell Law faculty and staff members.

Black spoke at length on the history of eugenics in America and its connections to Nazi Germany. At the North Carolina General Assembly, Black discussed the history of the North Carolina eugenics movement and its direct connection to movements across the country and abroad. In his later address at the Campbell University RTP Campus, Black discussed the specific role of lawmakers and attorneys in planning, performing, overlooking, and approving eugenics programs.

“Without the legal profession this still would have never become empowered,” said Black. “It would have all been talk. It is the legal profession that worked in overdrive, not just in isolation but in collective, to engineer the destruction of their neighbors and to commit genocide.”

Black’s visit, which was orchestrated by Campbell Law Professor Kevin Lee, follows Campbell Law’s lecture series on eugenics throughout this past February and March. “Eugenics in America – History and Legacy” featured several prominent legal scholars and historians, offering a thorough and frank exploration into the history of eugenics in the United States. Professor Lee also planned and organized the series.