On July 24, 1972, the Washington Star Newspaper exposed a 40 year experiment to examine the effects of untreated syphilis in African American men.
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment began in 1932 in Macon County, Alabama. Participants were told the experiment would provide treatment for “bad blood.” Six hundred men with and without the disease were persuaded to participate, most of whom were poorly educated, impoverished sharecroppers.
Those with syphilis were not told they were infected, nor were they treated for the disease, even after a cure was discovered in the 1940’s. Over the course of 40 years, 128 participants died of syphilis or syphilis-related complications. The experiment was still in process in July of 1972, when the Washington Star published an article exposing the details.
Hosted by the late D’Army Bailey, Moments in Civil Rights History is produced in collaboration with the Equal Justice Initiative and is part of Comcast NBCUniversal’s “His Dream, Our Stories” project.
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7 Comments
Not surprised @ all about how our ancestors were treated by racist ppl,smh ?!!
I would like to know who they paid off as far as families? Because I believe they did the same thing in KS because my grandfather had syphilis..lost 4 children at birth or still born this disease. They tried to say he got it from other women but my grandmother was the love of his life and ahe had 8 children and only 4 survived. My aunt myrtle was suppose to be a twin but the other baby did not develop! All from complications of this disease. My grandfathwr was also half black and half Cherokee and was born in Ft Smith Ark. In his old age he worn pop bottle glasses and drank to stop the pain he was in etc. I just want more info because I don’t believe this was only done in Alabama!
There must be a special place in hell for those that put these innocent people through this.
Beware of the pale horse and the rider is death… Everything they make kills us.
Terry, you have to also be aware of the Negro, that the white man brings with him. There was a Black nurse that traveled with this band of doctors, subsequently, knowing what was going on but never said a word.
…So it was rationalized as an act of science?.. the evil that men and women do and our own government to it’s own citizens and soldiers who carried some manner of faith in them. It’s an atrocious and evil act of betrayal and unforgivable for anyone who deems to be an “human”
People are evil. It is heartbreaking to think of the many women and children who were collateral damage during and since this atrocious experiment. Just thinking of the ling-term effects of those poor women and men who no doubt were infected with, and became barren/sterile, while this experiment ran its course. Pure evil – through and through…