Legislative leaders hold formal apology for past state-sanctioned eugenics activities

Oct. 23, 2021  |  By Lisa Scagliotti 

Chris La France takes in the moment. Photo by Michaela Milligan

Holly LaFrance picks up a copy of the apology. Photo by Michaela Milligan

Last weekend, Vermont Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski and Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint led a special event at the State House to publicly apologize on behalf of the Legislature for Vermont’s 20th-century state-sanctioned eugenics practices. 

Intended to be held on the steps of the State House in Montpelier, the event was moved into the House chamber due to thunderstorms. 

The legislative leaders held the short ceremony to commemorate publicly the unanimous passage earlier this year of  J.R.H.2, a resolution formally apologizing to all Vermonters and their families, descendants, and communities who were harmed by state-sanctioned eugenics policies and practices during what many consider to have been a dark chapter in the state’s history. 

“We cannot undo the trauma but we can start by formally acknowledging this dark period in our state’s history,” Krowinski said. “Today we publicly apologize for the Legislature’s role in ever allowing this to occur. We are sorry and I am sorry.”

Balint admitted that harm done decades ago cannot be undone. “But as the current leadership of the Vermont General Assembly, we take responsibility for the actions of the legislative branch and we commit ourselves to making sure that this never happens again,” she said. “This is a moment for grief, but it’s also a moment for growth.”

Rob Richard said he found "the apology was hollow" and "just words without action." Photo by Michaela Milligan

While today’s understanding of eugenics often brings to mind the practice of sterilizing individuals to prevent them from passing their traits to the next generation, the legislative leaders noted that what happened in Vermont under the Vermont Eugenics Survey which became law in 1931 was more far-reaching, causing great suffering. 

Elected officials “wrongly and tragically” embraced “faulty science and social thinking,” Balint said to create a “better society.” 

The result was “policies that included restrictions on who one could marry, policies that removed children from their families and segregated them into places like the Brandon Training School, policies that forced the removal of adults from their families and institutionalized them.”

The Vermont State Hospital for the Insane in Waterbury and the Brandon Training School were two establishments in which minorities were institutionalized and subjected to harmful treatment during this era. The University of Vermont was a hub of eugenics scholarship and UVM has also had a reckoning with this part of its history in recent years during which trustees have both issued a public apology and removed the name of Guy Bailey from the campus library; Bailey was UVM president at the time of the eugenics survey. 

Proponents of the eugenics movement thought that Vermont should only “welcome people to our state who they deemed to be superior, those who met certain racial and class qualifications,” Balint said. “It is difficult to reckon with this awful, painful history.” 

Krowinski listed off the various groups targeted by those carrying out eugenics experiments during that time and who were harmed in the name of science including “Indigenous communities, French-Canadians, persons with disabilities, and low-income families.”

State Rep. Tom Stevens, D-Waterbury, gestures as he talks to an attendee at the ceremony that attracted several dozen Vermonters on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Stevens chairs the House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs which devoted considerable time toward crafting the apology resolution. Photo by Michaela Milligan

The leaders thanked those who testified in legislative committee hearings and whose stories both first-person and those of their family members influenced the resulting resolution and inspired lawmakers to see it through to passage. The resolution, J.R.H.2 passed both chambers unanimously in the 2021 session.

“We must continue to strive for a more equitable Vermont. We still have work to do,” the Windam County senator said, adding that working on the resolution should inform future legislation and the processes lawmakers use. “We only meet the needs of all Vermonters if we include all the voices,” she said. 

Waterbury state Rep. Tom Stevens chairs the House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs, which devoted weeks hearing testimony and drafting the apology resolution. Krowinski referenced Stevens’ speech when he introduced the joint resolution to the full House.  

“He said, ‘What is it? What does it do and why are we doing it now? An apology is both an end and a beginning,’” she recounted.

Speaker of the House Rep. Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, and Senate President Pro Tempore, Windham County Sen. Becca Balint, D-Brattleboro, lead the apology ceremony. Intended for outdoors on the State House steps, the event was moved into the House chambers due to thunderstorms. Photo by Michaela Milligan

Looking ahead, the leaders said they hoped that the apology will help mend divides between lawmakers and communities who suffered under eugenics practices, that elected officials will seek to include those who haven’t historically participated in the legislative process. 

Beyond that, Krowinski said legislators have begun to brainstorm steps to represent these efforts such as promoting Indigenous art in public places and finding a way to permanently display the apology in the State House. 

Most important is that current and future Vermonters not forget the painful lessons of the eugenics era, she said. As she pointed to printed copies of the apology for attendees to take home, Krowinski said she hoped that it would “bring this time in ou history to the attention of more Vermonters and lead them to read about our past so that we all can learn from it and know we need to do all we can to be thoughtful with the laws we create in the future.”

ORCA Media recorded the Vermont legislators’ public apology for state-sanctioned eugenics policies and practices on Oct. 16.