Tuskegee Syphilis Study

From 1932 to 1972, the US Public Health Service conducted a study on 399 Black men in Tuskegee, Alabama who had syphilis — without telling them they had the disease and without treating them, even after penicillin became the standard cure in 1947. The men were told they were receiving free healthcare for "bad blood." By the time the study was exposed by a whistleblower in 1972, 128 participants had died of syphilis or its complications, 40 wives had been infected, and 19 children were born with congenital syphilis. The study is the single most cited reason for medical mistrust in Black communities—a mistrust rate 50% higher than the average for the Tuskegee Syphilis Study's era.