African American males were used to study syphilis without their knowledge or consent in a clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the U.S. Public Health Service. The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the African American Male aimed to observe the natural history of untreated syphilis. The men in the study were only told they were receiving free health care from the Federal government of the United States. The Public Health Service worked in collaboration with Tuskegee University, a historically black college in Alabama. Investigators enrolled 600 impoverished, African-American sharecroppers from Macron County, Alabama.
In 1932 the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” was started by the U.S. Public Health Service and the Tuskegee Institute, to study the effects of the disease. In exchange for free health care and burial insurance, 600 poor sharecroppers in Alabama were studied but not treated without their consent. 399 had syphilis and the control group of 201 did not. Researchers told the men they were being treated for “bad blood,” a term used to describe ailments such as syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. The doctors withheld treatment from the men who had the disease, even after penicillin was available in 1947, causing needless pain and suffering for the men and their loved ones. Without treatment, syphilis effects the brain, nervous system and the eyes. Symptoms include headaches, difficulty with coordination, paralysis, dementia and blindness.