On July 25, 1972, Jean Heller, a reporter on The Associated Press investigative team, then called the Special Assignment Team, broke news that rocked the nation. Based on documents leaked by Peter Buxtun, a whistleblower at the U.S. Public Health Service, the then 29-year-old journalist and the only woman on the team, reported that the federal government let hundreds of Black men in rural Alabama go untreated for syphilis for 40 years in order to study the impact of the disease on the human body. Most of the men were denied access to penicillin, even when it became widely available as a cure. A public outcry ensued, and nearly four months later, the "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male" came to an end. The investigation would have far-reaching implications: The men in the study filed a lawsuit that resulted in a $10 million settlement, Congress passed laws governing how subjects in research studies were treated, and more than two decades later President Bill Clinton formally apologized for the study, calling it "shameful."
Today, the effects of the study still linger — it is often blamed for the unwillingness of some African Americans to participate in medical research.
In observance of the 50th anniversary of Heller's groundbreaking investigation, the AP is republishing the original report and a recent interview with her and others on how the story came together.
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Today, the effects of the study still linger — it is often blamed for the unwillingness of some African Americans to participate in medical research.
In observance of the 50th anniversary of Heller's groundbreaking investigation, the AP is republishing the original report and a recent interview with her and others on how the story came together.
Exposing the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: The 50th anniversary
For 40 years starting in 1932, medical workers in the segregated South withheld treatment for Black men who were unaware they had syphilis, so doctors could track the ravages of the illness and dissect their bodies afterward.
