Albert Sidney Priddy (December 7, 1865 – January 13, 1925) was an American physician and politician. He served two non-consecutive terms as a member of the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

from Charlotte County. A proponent of

eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...

and

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 throug ...

, Priddy was instrumental in the founding of the

Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded The Virginia State Colony for the Epileptics and Feeble Minded was a state run institution for those considered to be “Feeble-minded, Feeble minded” or those with severe mental impairment. The colony opened in 1910 near Lynchburg, Virginia in ...

and served as its first superintendent. It was in this capacity that he was named as defendant in the case ''Buck v. Priddy''. The case was later renamed ''

Buck v. Bell ''Buck v. Bell'', 274 U.S. 200 (1927), is a decision of the United States Supreme Court, written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., in which the Court ruled that a state statute permitting compulsory sterilization of the unfit, including th ...

'' after his death in 1925 and made it to the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

References

1865 births 1925 deaths Democratic Party members of the Virginia House of Delegates 19th-century American politicians {{Virginia-politician-stub