Carrie Elizabeth Buck born July 2, 1906 was reared from age 3 by John and Alice Dobbs. 1920 marked the year C.E. Buck’s biological mother, Emma Adeline Harlowe Buck, was named a “low grade moron”. She was committed to the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded. In the early 1900’s certain social defects and behaviors were thought to be genetic traits that could be passed down the family lineage. The general public, medical science community, and justice system of Virginia were in agreement that these shortcomings required “sterilization” by either salpingectomy or vasectomy. In 1923 Carrie Buck alleged rape by the Dobbs’s nephew to account for her pregnancy. The Dobbs would then petition the courts to find Buck “feeble-minded”…show more content… Buck was fostered by another family until the birth of her daughter on March 28, 1924. The child was then placed with the Dobbs family and Buck was committed to the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded on June 4, 1924. At the time of her commitment Albert S. Priddy was the superintendent of the colony. On March 20, 1924 the Virginia passed the statute granting institutions the ability to sterilize its inmates if found mentally compromised. 143 Va. 310. The “proof” needed to qualify candidates was subjective to the institutions superintendents. In Buck’s case she was the daughter of a feeble-minded mother and mother to a feeble-minded daughter. This was enough in the court’s eyes to vote in favor of sterilization for Carrie Buck. Priddy, wanting to maintain no culpability, urged Buck’s appointed guardian, Robert G. Shelton to seek an appeal to the aforementioned court order. Aubrey Strode represented the colony on the matter and is worth mentioning that he had drafted the Virginia Statute now in question. Irving P. Whitehead (former colony member) represented Miss Buck. During the course of the trial numerous witnesses for the colony were paraded through and all testifying to the nature of Buck’s
