The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded opened in 1910 as the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics near Lynchburg, Virginia in Madison Heights.
It was authorized by a 1906 bill written by eugenicist and social welfare advocate Aubrey Strode, in collaboration with eugenicists Albert Priddy and Joseph DeJarnette. Priddy served as the first superintendent of the colony. Colonies like the Virginia State Colony had been established in order to separate the disabled from criminal populations, for example, many of the first inhabitants of the Virginia State Colony had previously been housed in prisons and state hospitals.In 1914, Priddy asked the state legislature to expand the Colony's purview to include the feebleminded. The name was then changed to reflect the Colony's new mission. The Colony is notorious for having been the home of both Emma Buck and her daughter, Carrie Buck, who played a major role in the history of the American eugenics movement which culminated in the Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell. The name was changed to Lynchburg State Colony in 1940, Lynchburg Training School and Hospital in 1954, and since 1983, has been known as the Central Virginia Training Center. The records of Central Virginia Training Center can be found at the Library of Virginia.
References
See also
- Poe v. Lynchburg Training School & Hospital
