The Relf Sisters
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The Relf Sisters
The Relf Sisters, Minnie Lee and Mary Alice Relf (who were 12 and 14 years old in 1973, respectively), are two African-American sisters who were involuntarily sterilized by tubal ligation by a federally funded family planning clinic in Montgomery, Alabama in 1973. News coverage of a class-action lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center brought the fact of U.S. government-funded sterilization abuse to the national spotlight. Relf family background and context Mary Alice and Minnie Lee are the youngest of six children born to Lonnie and Minnie Relf. The Relf family experienced poverty while living in Montgomery, Alabama. Lonnie Relf, having been injured in a car accident, was unable to work and neither he nor his wife, Minnie, were able to read or write. The family received support from the Montgomery, Alabama Community Action Committee which, in 1971, relocated the family to live in public housing. Background At the time of the case, in 1973, women of color were a major ...
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Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 2020 census, Montgomery's population was 200,603. It is the second most populous city in Alabama, after Huntsville, and is the 119th most populous in the United States. The Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area's population in 2020 was 386,047; it is the fourth largest in the state and 142nd among United States metropolitan areas. The city was incorporated in 1819 as a merger of two towns situated along the Alabama River. It became the state capital in 1846, representing the shift of power to the south-central area of Alabama with the growth of cotton as a commodity crop of the Black Belt and the rise of Mobile as a mercantile port on the Gulf Coast. In February 1861, Montgomery was chosen the first capital of the Confederate States of ...
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United States District Court For The District Of Columbia
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii and the High Court of American Samoa) federal issues that arise in the territory of American Samoa American Samoa ( sm, Amerika Sāmoa, ; also ' or ') is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the island country of Samoa. Its location is centered on . It is east of the Internationa ..., which has no local federal court or United States territorial court, territorial court.https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-08-1124T U.S. Government Accountability Office. AMERICAN SAMOA: Issues Associated with Some Federal Court Options. September 18, 2008. Retrieved September 7, 2019. Appeals from the District are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia C ...
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African-American History In Montgomery, Alabama
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of Slavery in the United States, enslaved Africans who are from the United States. While some Black immigrants or their children may also come to identify as African-American, the majority of first generation immigrants do not, preferring to identify with their nation of origin. African Americans constitute the second largest racial group in the U.S. after White Americans, as well as the third largest ethnic group after Hispanic and Latino Americans. Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved people within the boundaries of the present United States. On average, African Americans are of West Africa, West/Central Africa, Central African with some European descent; some also have Native Americans in th ...
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1973 In Alabama
Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam. * January 17 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President for Life of the Philippines. * January 20 – Richard Nixon is Second inauguration of Richard Nixon, sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. Nixon is the only person to have been sworn in twice as President (First inauguration of Richard Nixon, 1969, Second inauguration of Richard Nixon, 1973) and Vice President of the United States (First inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953, Second inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1957). * January 22 ** George Foreman defeats Joe Frazier to win the heavyweight world boxing championship. ** A ...
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Compulsory Sterilization
Compulsory sterilization, also known as forced or coerced sterilization, is a government-mandated program to involuntarily sterilize a specific group of people. Sterilization removes a person's capacity to reproduce, and is usually done through surgical procedures. Several countries implemented sterilization programs in the early 20th century. Although such programs have been made illegal in most countries of the world, instances of forced or coerced sterilizations persist. Rationalizations for compulsory sterilization have included eugenics, population control, gender discrimination, limiting the spread of HIV,Eliminating forced, coercive and otherwise involuntary sterilization: An interagency statement ...
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Buck V
Buck may refer to: Common meanings * A colloquialism for a dollar or similar currency * An adult male in some animal species - see List of animal names * Derby shoes, nicknamed "bucks" for the common use of buckskin in their making People *Buck (nickname) *Buck Pierce (born 1981), Canadian football quarterback *Buck (surname), a list of people *Buck 65, stage name of Canadian hip hop artist Richard Terfry *Buck Angel, stage name of American trans man, adult film producer and performer Jake Miller (born 1972) *Buck Dharma, stage name of American guitarist Donald Roeser (born 1947) *Buck Ellison (born 1987), American artist *Buck Henry, stage name of American actor, writer, and director Henry Zuckerman (1930–2020) *Buck Jones, stage name of American film actor Charles Gebhart (1891–1942) *Buck Owens, stage name of American singer and guitarist Alvis Owens Jr. (1929–2006) *Young Buck, stage name of American rapper David Darnell Brown (born 1981) *David Paul Grove (born 1958), Ca ...
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Carrie Buck
Carrie Elizabeth Buck (July 3, 1906 – January 28, 1983) was the plaintiff in the United States Supreme Court case ''Buck v. Bell'', after having been ordered to undergo compulsory sterilization for purportedly being "feeble-minded" by her foster parents after their nephew Rape in the United States, raped and impregnated her. She had given birth to an Legitimacy (family law), illegitimate child without the means to support it. The surgery, carried out while Buck was an inmate of the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded, took place under the authority of the Virginia Sterilization Act of 1924, Sterilization Act of 1924, part of the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia's eugenics program. Early life Carrie Buck was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, the first of three children born to Emma Buck; she also had a half-sister, Doris Buck, and a half-brother, Roy Smith. Little is known about Emma Buck except that she was poor and married to Frederick Buck, who abandoned ...
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Office Of Economic Opportunity
The Office of Economic Opportunity was the agency responsible for administering most of the War on Poverty programs created as part of United States President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society legislative agenda. It was established in 1964 as an independent agency and renamed the Community Services Administration in 1975. In 1981, it was moved into the Department of Health and Human Services as the Office of Community Services, with most of its programs continuing to operate. History Independent agency The office was created through the efforts of R. Sargent Shriver, who also served as its first director. Programs such as VISTA, Job Corps, Community Action Program, and Head Start (though that program was later transferred to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare) were all administered by the OEO. It was established in 1964, but quickly became a target of both left-wing and right-wing critics of the War on Poverty. President Richard Nixon's appointment of Howard Ph ...
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Department Of Health, Education And Welfare
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is "Improving the health, safety, and well-being of America". Before the separate federal Department of Education was created in 1979, it was called the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). HHS is administered by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, who is appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the United States Senate. The position is currently held by Xavier Becerra. The United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the uniformed service of the PHS, is led by the Surgeon General of the United States, Surgeon General who is responsible for addressing matters concerning public health as authorized by the secretary or by the Assistant Secretary for Health, assistant secretary for Health in add ...
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Caspar Weinberger
Caspar Willard Weinberger (August 18, 1917 – March 28, 2006) was an American statesman and businessman. As a prominent Republican, he served in a variety of state and federal positions for three decades, including chairman of the California Republican Party, 1962–1968. Most notably he was Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1987. Weinberger was born in San Francisco, California. He served in the 41st Infantry Division in the Pacific theater of World War II. Weinberger's entry into politics was as a California State Assemblyman from 1953 to 1959, and he would go on to serve as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. An accomplished private sector businessman, he later became vice president and general counsel of Bechtel Corporation, and still later Chairman of ''Forbes'' magazine. Weinberger's tenure as Secretary of Defense was marked by ...
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Class-action Lawsuit
A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class action originated in the United States and is still predominantly a US phenomenon, but Canada, as well as several European countries with civil law, have made changes in recent years to allow consumer organizations to bring claims on behalf of consumers. Description In a typical class action, a plaintiff sues a defendant or a number of defendants on behalf of a group, or class, of absent parties. This differs from a traditional lawsuit, where one party sues another party, and all of the parties are present in court. Although standards differ between states and countries, class actions are most common where the allegations usually involve at least 40 people who the same defendant has injured in the same way. Instead of each damaged person bring ...
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Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white supremacist groups, for its classification of hate groups and other extremist organizations, and for promoting tolerance education programs. The SPLC was founded by Morris Dees, Joseph J. Levin Jr., and Julian Bond in 1971 as a civil rights law firm in Montgomery. Bond served as president of the board between 1971 and 1979. In 1980, the SPLC began a litigation strategy of filing civil suits for monetary damages on behalf of the victims of violence from the Ku Klux Klan. The SPLC also became involved in other civil rights causes, including cases to challenge what it sees as institutional racial segregation and discrimination, inhumane and unconstitutional conditions in prisons and detention centers, discrimination based on sexual orientatio ...
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