CL HISTORY SPOTLIGHT: THE TUSKEGEE SYPHILIS EXPERIMENT
Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment began in 1932, when the Public Health Service started working with the Tuskegee Institute to study the effects of syphilis on the human body. However, the nearly 400 poor black men who participated in the study were never informed they even had syphilis nor were they treated for it.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the men were told they were being treated for “bad blood”, a local term used to describe several illnesses, including syphilis, anemia and fatigue. In exchange for their participation, the men were given free medical exams, free meals and free burial insurance. Although originally projected to last 6 months, the study went on for 40 years.
Dr. Taliaferro Clark is credited with the origin of the study after he suggested the racial variation in the effects of syphilis so that Southern legislators would increase funding for treatment programs. Clark believed Macon County would be the perfect location for the study as it had one of the highest rates of syphilis in the nation.
Tuskegee Institute agreed to support the study if it received “its full share of the credit” and black professionals were involved. Dr. Eugene Dibble, and nurse Eunice Rivers, who both worked at John Andrew Hospital at the Tuskegee Institute, were recruited.
Following Clark’s retirement, Dr. Raymond H. Vonderlehr was appointed director of the research program. Instead of studying syphilis during a defined period of time in the population, as Clark had proposed, he decided that the study would continue until all the men died and their bodies could be examined.
At the beginning of the study, there was no proven treatment for syphilis. Even after penicillin became a standard cure for the disease in 1947, the medicine was withheld from the men so scientists could continue to study how the disease spreads and kills. With the assistance of local and government health officials, Tuskegee Institute, physicians and draft boards, the men were never to be treated.
The experiment went on for four decades, until Peter Buxtun, a social worker and epidemiologist, leaked the story to the media. By then, dozens of the men had died, and many wives and children had been infected. In 1973, a class-action lawsuit was filed, awarding a $9 million settlement to be divided among the study’s participants and free health care to be given to survivors, infected wives, widows and children.
In 1997, President Bill Clinton formally apologized for the unethical study, saying what the government had done was deeply, profoundly and morally wrong:
“To the survivors, to the wives and family members, the children and the grandchildren, I say what you know: No power on Earth can give you back the lives lost, the pain suffered, the years of internal torment and anguish.
What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye and finally say, on behalf of the American people: what the United States government did was shameful.
And I am sorry.”
Ernest Hendon, the last living survivor of the study, died Jan. 16, 2004. He was 96.
VIDEOS ABOUT ‘THE TUSKEGEE SYPHILIS EXPERIMENT’






92 Comments
COMMENT PAGES: « 1 [2] Show All
76.
JL
Thursday, September 10, 2009 /
No, what “They” successfully managed to do, is make black people ignorant and support all agendas that come from black people>> Barack, BET, and the list goes on….
77.
CHELLY!
Thursday, September 10, 2009 /
I’ve known about this but its still very shocking. thanks for posting this because alot of people dont know about this. its just really sad
78.
DD
Thursday, September 10, 2009 /
THIS IS WHY WE NEED TO WAKE UP AS BLACK PEOPLE AND BAN TOGETHER. YOU WILL BE SURPRISED BUT BLACKS WERE ALSO INVOLVED IN THIS….. THERE ARE BLACK PEOPLE WHO HAVE MADE A PACT WITH WHITE TO DESTROY OUR OWN COMMUNITIES FOR MONEY (WEALTH)… HOW DO YOU THINK WHITES GOT US FROM AFRICA, WE SOLD OUR OWN PEOPLE FOR MONEY, WHAT WE THOUGHT WAS RICH BUT IT WASNT. RHODES WAS A MAN WHO WENT TO AFRICA AND TOOK OUR GOLD AND KILLED OUR PEOPLE, CLINTON RECEIVED THE RHODES SCHOLARSHIP. WHEN CLINTON WAS IN OFFICE HE DID NOTHING TO HELP RAWANDA. WE BETTER WAKE UP.
DO NOT TAKE THE SWINE FLU VAC. IT WILL MAKE US SICKER AND ALLOW OUR BODIES O BE INFECTED. THERE ARE FEMA CAMPS SET UP ACROSS THE COUNTRY BECAUSE THEY ARE EXPECTING SOME BIG THING TO HAPPEN, NOTICE HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE SWINE FLU RIGHT NOW. HOW DO YOU THINK 2000 WASHINGTON STATE STUDENTS GOT SWINE FLU IN THE FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL? IT WAS A TRIAL RUN TO SEE HOW CONTAGIOUS IT WILL BE. IN EUROPE THEY COUNTED 46 THOUSAND PEOPLE HAVE SWINE FLU TWO MONTHS AGO, THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION STOPPED COUNTING (2 MONTHS AGO) SO IT COULD BE AT A MILLION FOR ALL WE KNOW. IN EUROPE THEY HAVE CREATED 12 MILLION VACCINES FOR CHILDREN ONLY, THE SIDE AFFECTS CAUSES AUTISM IN CHILDREN AN BIRTH DEFECTS TO EXPECTING MOTHERS. THEY ARE TRYING TO GET THE KIDS….
79.
DD
Thursday, September 10, 2009 /
ALSO, THE VACCINES ARE BECOMING THE MARK OF THE BEAST…. HOSPITAL WORKERS WILL BE FIRED IF THEY DO NOT GET A SWINE FLU SHOT, ACROSS AMERICA THE GOVERNMENT IS PAYING PEOPLE TO ATTEND SWINE FLU SEMINARS…..
WE ARE IN OUR FINAL DAYS, ITS ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. BLACK PEOPLE ARE NOT STICKING TOGETHER, WE ALLOW HIP HOP AND BLACK CELEBS TO LEAD US INTO DESTRUCTION.
80.
DD
Thursday, September 10, 2009 /
@JL
YOU’RE RIGHT, THERE ARE ONLY A SELECT FEW OF US THAT SEE STRAIGHT THROUGH BET, JAY Z, OPRAH, AND SO ON.. BUT NOTICE HOW PEOPLE ARE CALLED “HATERS” NOW. IF YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH YOU WILL BE LABELED, JUST LIKE IF YOU QUESTION CHRIST YOU ARE LABELED AN “ANTI CHRIST”, IF YOU QUESTION THE HALOCAUST YOU ARE LABELED “ANTI SEMETIC”, IF YOU QUESTION POP STARS OR HIP HOP ARTIST YOU ARE LABLED “HATER”. BLACK PEOPLE ARE BEING PLAYED IN A WAY THAT IS SO GENIUS! THEY MANAGED TO BREAK US THROUGH INFESTING OUR COMMUNITIES WITH DRUGS, THEN THEY TURNED OUR POETRY INTO SOMETHING THAT EXPLOITS BLACK WOMAN (CALLING THEM SLUTS LIKE SLAVE MASTERS DID), BRAGGING ABOUT SELLING DRUGS TO BLACKS (THAT WHITES PUMPED INTO OUR COMMUNITIES), AND EXPLOITING GOLD THATS ORIGINALLY FROM OUR COUNTRY. NOW MAJORITY OF KIDS TODAY ONLY WANT TO BE A RAPPER OR HIP HOP STARS…..
SORRY FOR THE RANT BUT I LOVE WHEN THE SUBJECT IS DEEP!
81.
D
Thursday, September 10, 2009 /
Trailblaza
Thursday, September 10, 2009 /
“Unfortunately this is still goin on today except now it’s called hip-hop.”
Profound and I concur.
82.
Diane
Thursday, September 10, 2009 /
The Tuskegee experiment on blacks is exactly why we are NOT racing out to get the vaccine for H1N1 (swine flu) esp. since it hasn’t been tested properly and the company making the vaccine has asked for total immunity against lawsuit if something happens to people! Now that’s a clue and a half for your ass! It was projected to be thousands of cases and so far it’s in the hundreds, and more people die every year from the regular flu than from the swine flu. We are not lab rats!
83.
Diane
Thursday, September 10, 2009 /
Ya’ll better start reading up about these child vaccines too! Why do you think we “grow ‘em big” these days? It’s all the hormones in the food. Kids are growing huge, 13 years old looking 25 and girls starting their cycle at 9 years old. Stop feeding your kids all this damn chicken pumped with steroids. It’s been proven certain kid vaccines are tied to autism but the government looks the other way because they think or say the good outweighs the bad. Search Holly Robinson Peete and Jenny McCarthy (both their kids have it) and see what they’re doing about it.
84.
SOMNAMBULISM
Friday, September 11, 2009 /
This is the saddest thing I’ve read all year. Is there any goodness left in humanity? I often wonder. God help us all. And it never ceases to amaze me how posts like this get very little attention compared to other posts with trivial superficial content.
As another person stated, “knowledge is power.” You will find it if you search for it. I wish we, as a race, would educate ourselves, so these atrocities would not be repeated.
85.
Tabby
Friday, September 11, 2009 /
This is one of the reasons the gov’t can take that swine flu shot and stick it!!
86.
JUDAH
Friday, September 11, 2009 /
—–@MY2SENSE
—–What you’re thinking of in regards to the Native Americans is called the “Trail of
—–Tears”. Another thing, no disrespect, but do yourself a favor and look up the
—–information that I presented as opposed to being another negro naysayer. The
—–things that I say are based off of research. You sound like a fool saying “I doubt
—–it”, when all you need to do is a 2 minute google search to corroborate the info.
—–Some of you black people, particularly you sisters, need to understand that this
—–is bigger than trying to show that you’re an “educated black woman”. When the
—–sh*t hits the fan, and they start rounding blacks up to go to the concentration
—–camps, no one is going to give a damn how educated you think you are.
—–The Nazis were the forerunners in methods of mental manipulation, germ warfare,
—–weapons technology, etc. through their knowledge of occult and esoteric doctrine.
—–They were the ones who made great advances in what is known today as the
—–MKULTRA mind control programming which is used on the vast majority of
—–celebrities, spies, agents, dignataries, and world leaders. For example; the so-
—–called Nazi doctor of death, Josef Mengele, was a master in witchcraft and the
—–occult, who used the doctrines in the Egyptian Book of the Dead as a matrix for
—–the experiments down on the people in the work camps. It’s a deep issue and
—–it is really more spiritual than anything else. It will go over most peoples’ heads
—–because most people do not understand the power of the spiritual world and the
—–influence it has on the elite in this world.
87.
Jazzy
Friday, September 11, 2009 /
I didn’t know the study went on for 40 years. We as black people have to remember not to fall for anything. They targeted poor black men that knew no better and thought free rides, free medical and free food was gold. This didn’t just effect them it effected wives and the children that had to suffer with that terrible disease. It would have to be a serous epidemic for me to consider getting a flu shot.
88.
Jazzy
Friday, September 11, 2009 /
There is no “Black Pride” in the community. If it was these black young men wouldn’t be killing one another. Senseless crimes are going on because they don’t have “Black Pride”. They don’t love themselves so how do we expect them to love their own people. This sensless black on black crime is an epidemic. How can we fix it? How can we get through to these young men to stop the killing? Where are the black leaders? Any leaders?
89.
JYOUS1
Friday, September 11, 2009 /
****** THIS IS THE EXACT REASON WHY I DO NOT GET FLU SHOTS! THEY
****** HAND THESE SHOTS OUT LIKE FREE MONEY AND PEOPLE STILL GET
****** SICK-SOMETHING DOESNT SIT RIGHT WITH ME ABOUT THAT. *******SORRY I AM ONE OF THOSE CONSPIRACY PEOPLE– LOL!
90.
» AWARENESS: MENTAL HEALTH & THE BLACK COMMUNITY // 'CONCRETELOOP.COM' - QUALITY NOT QUANTITY
Thursday, September 17, 2009 /
[...] There’s also the general suspicion many of us have for the medical field and psychiatry in particular. It’s not easy to forget a time when blacks were unwitting and unwilling subjects of medical experiments such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. [...]
91.
» AWARENESS: MENTAL HEALTH & THE BLACK COMMUNITY // 'CONCRETELOOP.COM' - QUALITY NOT QUANTITY
Thursday, September 17, 2009 /
[...] There’s also the general suspicion many of us have for the medical field and psychiatry in particular. It’s not easy to forget a time when blacks were unwitting and unwilling subjects of medical experiments such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. [...]
92.
AWARENESS: MENTAL HEALTH & THE BLACK COMMUNITY : Actorscomfort
Thursday, September 17, 2009 /
[...] There’s also the general suspicion many of us have for the medical field and psychiatry in particular. It’s not easy to forget a time when blacks were unwitting and unwilling subjects of medical experiments such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. [...]
COMMENT PAGES: « 1 [2] Show All