California's Dark Legacy of Forced Sterilizations

(CNN) -- Sixty-seven years ago, 14-year-old Charlie Follett was living in California's Sonoma State Home. As he did most days, Follett sat in a field, singing popular songs to himself, enjoying the sunshine and the solitude.

Suddenly, someone came outside to get Follett and brought him to the hospital. They told him to lie down on an operating table, and then the needle came out.

"First, they shot me with some kind of medicine. It was supposed to deaden the nerves," he said. "Then the next thing I heard was snip, snip, and that was it."

The doctors didn't tell Follett what they were doing, but he knew anyway. Other boys at the Sonoma State Home had told him how much it hurt to have a vasectomy. Now it was his turn.
Forced sterilization in America

"When they did (my right side), it seemed like they were pulling my whole insides out," said Follett, now 82 and living in Stockton.

California: Leader in forced sterilizations

Follett was one of 20,000 Californians forcibly sterilized by the state from 1909 to 1963...