The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Beginning in 1932, health agencies of the U.S, government began a shocking medical experiment on several hundred peer, uneducated African-American men from the rural areas near Tuskegee, Alabama. These men were told they had "bad blood" and were promised free medical treatment. In fact, they had syphilis, and they were deliberately left untreated so doctors could study the long-term progressive symptoms of the disease. For forty years, this experiment continued. Its subjects did not know how they were beingused, the community did not know, and the public did not know in 1972. the experiment came to light, and civil rights attorney Fred Gray filed a massive, ultimately, successful, class action lawsuit against the government.