It is a particularly dark chapter in North Carolina history. Between 1929 annd 1974, an estimated 7,600 North Carolinians, both men and women, were sterilized under the authorization of the North Carolina Eugenics Board, according to the N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation. Many of those people were minorities, poor, undereducated, institutionalized, sick or disabled. Between 1,500 and 2,000 victims of state sterilization are estimated to still be alive today. The News & Observer reports that 146 living victims have been verified so far.

With a victim compensation plan close to approval, the state was set to be in the vanguard of righting the past wrongs of forced sterilization programs across the country.

On Wednesday, the state Senate killed the plan.