Race & Health Series: Could Tuskegee Happen Today?

The “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis” was an unethical medical research study conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service on hundreds of African-American men from 1932-1972. Approximately 400 study participants who had syphilis were told they were being treated for “bad blood” and never received the proper treatment for their illness, even after penicillin was widely adopted as a treatment for syphilis in the 1940s. The study failed to inform and protect these men, and has since influenced significant changes in U.S. laws and regulations relating to clinical research. This event will share first-person accounts from survivors of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, combined with expert perspectives and audience discussion, to address the history and legacy of the study and why it remains relevant today.

Moderator:

Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH

Deputy Commissioner and Director of the Center for Health Equity, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Speakers:

Monique A. Guishard, PhD

Chair of the Bronx Community Research Review Board

Associate Professor of Psychology at Bronx Community College

Susan M. Reverby, PhD

Author of "Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and its Legacy"

Marion Butler McLean Professor Emerita in the History of Ideas and Professor Emerita of Women's and Gender Studies at Wellesley College