Present to Past
Medical Racism
![A color photograph of a portion of a Stop Aids graffiti mural in New York City. The mural is painted on a light tan wall. The bottom half of the image features a depiction of a white brick wall with cracks running through many of the bricks, running the full length of the image. A light and dark blue cloud features prominently on the left side of the image with the words [STOP / AIDS] spray painted in yellow letters outlined in red. The middle of the image features an illustration two men standing in profile, facing each other, on either side of a tombstone. The front of the tombstone has the text [USE YOUR / HEAD BEFORE / YOU END UP / DEAD.] written in black text. The word [DEAD] is underlined and the letters have drip lines giving it a bloody text effect. The man on the left is featured wearing a yellow shirt, yellow pants, and black shoes with yellow laces. He has three black thought bubbles above, and to the right of his head. He is holding his proper left hand splayed out, reaching for a syringe with a bloody hypodermic needle in the proper right hand of the man depicted on the right of the tombstone. The man on the right is depicted with red spikey hair, a green shirt, green pants and black shoes with white laces. On the far right of the image is the text [THE LAW] written in red block letters, outlined in black, above a depiction of scrolled paper with the text [I. DON’T “SHOOT” / DRUGS. / II. USE CONDOM. / III. HAVE SEX WITH FAiTHFUL / PARTNER.] written in black text. There are no inscriptions on the recto. On the verso the image is signed in blue ink by the photographer.](/static/bc247fe92533cf2c8170cc1ed60d5da9/40176/2015_132_262_001.webp)
1932Tuskegee Experiment
Six men subjected to the Tuskegee Experiment
The History and Impact of the Tuskegee Experiment
Administering "treatment" for the Tuskegee Experiment
In 1932 the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) began recruiting 600 African American men from Macon County, Alabama to participate in a scientific experiment on syphilis. The “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male,” involved blood tests, x-rays, spinal taps and autopsies of the subjects but no treatment.
The goal of the study was to observe the natural progression of untreated syphilis but participants were told they were receiving treatment for “bad blood,” a term commonly used to describe a variety of illnesses. The men were given no treatment, even after penicillin was discovered as a cure for syphilis in 1945, over ten years later. Medical researchers justified lying to these men by saying that Black men were not inclined to seek medical care.
The USPHS went to great lengths to prevent the men in their study from accessing treatment. They provided doctors in Macon County and the Alabama Health Department with lists of participants and asked them not to treat them. When many of the men were drafted during World War II, military doctors discovered their syphilis during the entrance medical exam. USPHS researchers had them removed from the military instead of providing treatment. The experiment ended in 1972, forty years after it began, when The New York Times published a story on the front page. By the time the experiment ended, only 74 men were still alive. The NAACP successfully sued USPHS for 10 million dollars; the money was paid to victims and infected family members. The experiment had lasting impact. Even today, as a result of the Tuskegee Experiment, some African Americans are hesitant to receive government-issued vaccinations.