Macon County

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study gave researchers and physicians the opportunity to test these deeply troubling, medically dubious, and just plain old racist theories.

So in 1932, 600 African American men from Macon County, Alabama were recruited to participate in this experiment conducted by the Public Health Service.

399 of the men were already diagnosed with syphilis, and 201 were not.

So the goal of the study, essentially, was to see what happens to Black people when you don't treat syphilis.

A large and typical population lived roundabout.

The town was the county seat of Macon County, in which lived a large number of Negro farmers, all living very much as the Negro family lived in the South at that time.

The white people and the Negroes were about equal in population in the town and lived in cordial and friendly relations.

Booker Washington had a great surprise awaiting him when he reached Tuskegee.

So much of this kind of teaching was done, and it was so poorly done, and it was so poorly adapted to the needs of the Negro at the time, that a great many people began to doubt the wisdom of trying to educate the Negro at all.

But Washington insisted that the mistake was made in the kind of education they were trying to give him.

In answer to the question, "Does it pay to educate the Negro?" Washington often told the story of what had taken place in Macon County, Alabama, the county in which Tuskegee is located.

In that county, he and Mr. H.H. Rogers decided to build, with the cooperation of the people themselves, a system of excellent schools and try out as thoroughly as possible the question of the effect of education upon the Negro under favorable conditions.

I determined first of all that as far as possible I would try to gain the active support and cooperation in all that I undertook of the masses of my own race.

With this in view, before I began my work at Tuskegee, I spent several weeks traveling among the rural communities of Macon County, of which Tuskegee is the county seat.

During all this time, I had an opportunity to meet and talk individually with a large number of people representing the rural classes, which constitute eighty percent of the Negro population in the South.

I slept in their cabins, ate their food, talked to them in their churches, and discussed with them in their own homes their difficulties and their needs.

But not any of these services have had for me the real interest that certain services among my own people have had.

Let me describe the type of service that I have enjoyed more than any other in all my experience in attending church, whether in America or Europe.

In Macon County, Alabama, where I live, the colored people have a kind of church service that is called an all-day meeting.

The ideal season for such meetings is about the middle of May.

I determined, first of all, that as far as possible I would try to gain the active support and cooperation in all that I undertook of the masses of my own race.

With this in view, before I began my work at Tuskegee, I spent several weeks traveling among the rural communities of Macon County, of which Tuskegee is the county seat.

During all this time I had an opportunity to meet and talk individually with a large number of people representing the rural classes which constitute eighty percent of the Negro population in the South.

I slept in their cabins, ate their food, talked to them in their churches, and discussed with them in their own homes their difficulties and their needs.

But not any of these services have had for me the real interest that certain services among my own people have had.

Let me describe the type of service that I have enjoyed more than any other in all my experience in attending church, whether in America or Europe.

In Macon County, Alabama, where I live, the colored people have a kind of church service that is called an all-day meeting.

The ideal season for such meetings is about the middle of May.

So let's back this up and figure out how this happened.

The story of the experiment starts in Macon County, Alabama, all the way back in the 1930s.

Now Macon, it's kind of like bacon, but it's not, it's Macon, was a county that was primarily occupied by African-Americans.

In fact, it was 82.4% black because slavery had ended in 1865 and it was just 65 years prior.

So people growing up in Macon County likely had family members who experienced life in America under slavery.

So slavery was abolished, right? Yes, sorta.

But, and like, this is a big but, the reality of being enslaved doesn't just disappear overnight.

They're making their own money.

Um, they volunteered schools and if there's a need there, I lend my hand for that.

Um, my youngest daughter that goes to Tuskegee, um, that school system in Tuskegee, they're in Macon County, Alabama is one of the poor counties as well.

Um, so we did, um, book bags, um, But we partnered with another nonprofit that was already established.

And so we did book bags.

And that story begins in the Alabama heat.

Tuskegee Army airfields sat in the flatlands of Macon County.

The summers were brutal, the facilities by the standards of the time were separate and unequal.

But the flying was real.

When she began to seek out information as an older teen, it was something that she had to do in person.

I became more aware of an investigation when I was 16 years old, and I had my then boyfriend to drive me to Macon County and take me to the sheriff department.

And I talked to Sheriff Warren and Detective Cray at the time.

And basically, Detective Cray told me the type of lifestyle that my mama lived.

Don't bend the rules.

You go ahead and break it if you gotta break it.

I went to Macon County.

So what I did was I jumped over them and went to the State of Alabama and just filed for the autopsy report when I was 18 years old, and I got it.

This started back in 1932.

An organization called the United States Public Health Service launched an experiment in Macon County, Alabama, and they got 600 black men to sign up with the promise of some hot meals, free medical care and burial insurance.

And those guys, many of them lived in poverty.

So they were like, OK,

Yeah.

Let's just see what happens.

The U.S. Public Health Service started the 40-year project in 1932 in Macon County, Alabama to document the physical toll of the disease under racist medical theories of the era, claiming that syphilis affected black and white people differently.

Well, then where were the studies on unsuspecting white people?

A large and typical population lived round about.

The town was the county seat of Macon County, in which lived a large number of Negro farmers, all living very much as the Negro family lived in the South at that time.

The white people and the Negroes were about equal in population in the town and lived in cordial and friendly relations.

Booker Washington had a great surprise awaiting him when he reached Tuskegee.

So much of this kind of teaching was done, and it was so poorly done, and it was so poorly adapted to the needs of the Negro at the time, that a great many people began to doubt the wisdom of trying to educate the Negro at all.

But Washington insisted that the mistake was made in the kind of education they were trying to give him.

In answer to the question, does it pay to educate the Negro? Washington often told the story of what had taken place in Macon County, Alabama, the county in which Tuskegee is located.

In that county, he and Mr. H.H. Rogers decided to build, with the cooperation of the people themselves, a system of excellent schools and try out as thoroughly as possible the question of the effect of education upon the Negro under favorable conditions.