The Colony

The Documentary Podcast

Just outside Lynchburg, Virginia, there is a sprawling mental institution on a hill with a sinister history. For decades, the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded, (now called Central Virginia Training Center) participated in America’s forgotten eugenics program. In a landmark ruling in the Supreme Court case of Buck v Bell, eugenics became the law of the land, and set a legal precedent for sterilising anyone deemed “unfit”. Thus began one of the darkest chapters in American history; between 60,000 and 70,000 people were forcibly sterilised across the country.