Published: June 26, 2023
In 1932, 600 poor, rural Black Men were enrolled in a study that would become one of the biggest medical scandals in American history. The participants thought they were getting free health care from the U.S. Instead, they were in infected with syphilis and denied treatment so doctors could study the progression of the disease. They were not told they had the disease. Twenty-eight men died as a direct result of syphilis. 100 died of related complications. Forty of the mens' spouses were infected and 19 children were born with congenital syphilis.
Resources
- Medical Racism: A Legacy of Malpractice (Podcast) - SPLC Learning for Justice. The Teaching Hard History Podcast is hosted by Dr. Hasan Kwame, and provides educators with concrete ways to address “hard history,” from chattel slavery, to the victories of and violent responses to the Civil Rights movement, to the present day. In Episode 13 Season 4, “Medical Racism: A Legacy of Malpractice,” award-winning historian Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens details a chronology of medical malpractice and racist misconceptions about health while highlighting lesser-known stories of medical innovations by African Americans.
- Medical Apartheid: Teaching the Tuskegee Syphilis Study - Gretchen Kraig Turner, Rethinking Schools. This essay from a high school Science teacher explains her approach to teaching the Tuskegee Syphilis study, and medical apartheid more broadly.
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