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Celia Vandegrift jokes that she is "senile" at the age of 87, but her memory is sharp when it comes to the Lynchburg State Colony.

For decades, Vandegrift worked as a nurse at the government-run facility, which was once called the State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded. The place was home to epileptics, the mentally disabled, and people otherwise deemed socially inadequate by the government. In her role as a nurse, Vandegrift witnessed what may have been thousands of forced sterilizations -- part of a government effort to rid society of the “defective,” and create a super race.

'It's what our bosses wanted'

"It's what our legislators wanted at the time and what our bosses wanted, even the President of the United States,” Vandegrift told America Tonight, the first time she has spoken publicly about her involvement in one of America’s leading eugenics programs. “You trusted all those people, so I went right along with them."

She added: "I thought, at the time, I was doing the right thing. I can see now that it was so wrong."

The policy...