Milbank Memorial Fund Apologizes For Role In The Tuskegee Experiment
The Milbank Memorial Fund is apologizing for their role in the horrific Tuskegee Experiment.
According to the Associated Press, as Black men were dying from syphilis in Alabama, the Milbank Memorial Fund was paying only $100 to cover the funeral expenses. However, in order for families to receive the $100, they had to agree to autopsies on the men who died. It was all part of the plan to experiment and research on the bodies of Black men.
President of the fund, which was endowed in 1905 by Elizabeth Milbank Anderson, Christopher F. Koller, said during a ceremony at Tuskegee, “It was wrong. We are ashamed of our role. We are deeply sorry.”
Koller also told the Associated Press, “The upshot of this was real harm. It was one more example of ways that men in the study were deceived. And we are dealing as individuals, as a region, as a country, with the impact of that deceit.”
The Milbank Memorial Fund also donated to a descendants’ group, the Voices for Our Fathers Legacy Foundation. The amount of the donation is unknown.
Lillie Tyson Head, whose father, Freddie Lee Tyson, was part of the study, said in reaction to Koller’s apology, “It’s really something that could be used as an example of how apologies can be powerful in making reparations and restorative justice be real.”
The Tuskegee experiment, which began in 1932, is cited as one of the most egregious examples of racism in science in U.S. history. It involved 600 Black men, most of them were poor sharecroppers from the area. The research was conducted on the campus of the then-Tuskegee Institute by the U.S. Public Health Service.
The men, who were mostly illiterate and were not informed they were part of a medical study, were attracted by offers of high quality health care rarely received by their peers. But instead of being given medicines to treat syphilis, which were available by 1947, they were told they simply had “bad blood.” Prior to 1947, however, dozens of men had died and their wives and children infected.
In 1972, the Associated Press reported about the 40-year experiment, which prompted a considerable backlash and, ultimately, a panel blasted the poor ethics of those involved. A 1973 class-action lawsuit on behalf of the victims resulted in a $9 million settlement.
