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A History of Black Americans, Racism, and Healthcare Bibliography
Primary Sources
Clinton, Bill. “Remarks By the President in Apology for Study Done in Tuskegee.” Office of the Press Secretary, 16 May 1997, The East Room, Washington, D.C., Virginia.
On May 16, 1997, President Bill Clinton addressed the unethical procedures and injustices involved in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study in order to make an official apology towards the generations of victims affected. Clinton’s address acknowledges the lasting impacts of the study, both in blemishing the ethics regarding medical professions/the government and the implications it has towards minority groups regarding medical trust. He notes the mistakes the government made against “the hundreds of men used in research without their knowledge and consent”. His purpose is to prevent solutions while also providing a form of reconciliation with those affected; the speech contains promises to better bioethics. He references the survivors present with him and additionally, an executive order meant to extend “the charter of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission to October of 1999”. Clinton’s speech represents the late response and lack of coverage of Tuskegee, while also representing the long lasting impact due to the timing of the speech (as it was given years after the study had terminated).
“‘Henrietta Lacks’: A Donor’s Immortal Legacy.” Fresh Air from NPR, 2 February 2010, https://www.npr.org/transcripts/123232331.
Terry Gross is the host of the NPR show, Fresh Air, beginning her career in radio in 1973 in New York. Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, is a science writer who also serves as a contributing editor at Popular Science. In this episode, both women discuss Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells. HeLa cells were essentially in studying diseases and coming out with medical and scientific breakthroughs due to their unique ability to be ‘immortal’, dividing constantly and without halting. Skloot’s interview discusses the origins of the cells, the (outdated) radiation treatment Lacks received and more importantly, the segregation that impacted how health care was provided to people of colour. Eventually, these cells had lasting implications for the remaining members of Lacks’ family; there was an irony in how those who profited off the cells thrived while members of the family lived in poverty. They were essentially unable to reap the monetary or medical benefits that the cells had contributed to science. Skloot’s following of HeLa’s legacy, both through her familial ties and scientific discovery, reveals the trauma in which segregation affected health care. Her book also addresses, using historical evidence, anecdotes, and inferential data, in order to display why Tuskegee caused mistrust of healthcare within colored communities and how it impacted HeLa.
Sirry M. Alang PhD. “Mental health care among blacks in America: Confronting racism and constructing solutions.” Health Services Research, 1 April 2019, p.346-355.
Unidentified, Unidentified, and Bettie Sommer. Conversation with 114 year old black male, Florida Transcript. 1977. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afccal000517/>.
Secondary Sources
“AIDS crisis among blacks tied to mistrust of doctors.” Christian Century, 19 July 2000, p.749.
Alsan, Marcella, and Marianne Wanamaker. “TUSKEGEE AND THE HEALTH OF BLACK MEN.” The quarterly journal of economics vol. 133,1 (2018): 407-455. doi:10.1093/qje/qjx029
Fourtner, Ann W. “CHAPTER 16: Bad Blood.” Start With a Story: The Case Study Method of Teaching College Science, 2006, pp. 99–110. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=34071084&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Ann W. Fourtner is a scientific writer from the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science and is located in Buffalo, New York. She has done various writings for the book, Start With a Story: The Case Study Method of Teaching College Science. In this specific source, Fourtner describes both the symptoms and details of how syphilis spreads between individuals. She uses historical evidence featuring Congress’ establishing of a Division of Venereal Diseases within the USPHS (US Public Health Service). She notes that subjects were chosen amongst Macon County; its demographics were “82% African American” with a large amount of that percentage being individuals and family in a lower socioeconomic class. She describes, in detail, the procedures of that study (including variables tested, staff members and lack of treatment). Because Fourtner’s book deals primarily with teaching the correct narrative, Fourtner details how to go about explaining the reasoning behind the study itself. She includes direct data from the Tuskegee experiment itself in order to provide a comprehensive guide on the teachings of the subject. In regards to this specific research topic, Fourtner’s guide exists as a reference for both data of the study and the narrative in which it is intended to be displayed under.
Jacobs, Sue-Ellen. “‘Our Babies Shall Not Die’: A Community’s Response to Medical Neglect”. SFAA Journals: Human Organization. Vol. 38, No. 2, 1979, p.120-133.
Morris, Catherine. “A Bitter Pill.” Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, 11 February 2016, p.10-13.
Catherine Morris worked as a research assistant at the W.E.B. Dubois Institute at Harvard University and has a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University with a degree in history and literature. She has done specific research for the Diverse team regarding black history and racism in various institutions to be published for the public. She is writing to investigate and reveal how the Tuskegee Syphilis Study had lasting impacts on health care for minorities today; Morris also notes the ongoing history of “instances of the exploitation of communities of color at the hands of medical professionals” (Morris 11). “A Bitter Pill” addresses the shocking false narrative of health care and the underlying racism within it. Additionally, it covers how Tuskegee resonated through minority (especially black) communities (this is seen most prominently through the black community’s distrust of the medical system or doctors in general). Combined with personal experiences of minority communities, Morris establishes the impact of Tuskegee and unethical experimentations against colored communities and its relation to how minorities statistically have worse health care encounters. She uses both anecdotal evidence, statements by scholars, and statistics from various researches.
"The Man Who Broke the Story of the Tuskegee Experiment." , directed by Bob Morris. , produced by Sheryl J. Cannady, James Cannady, and Tony Brown. , Tony Brown Productions, 1993. Alexander Street, https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/the-man-who-broke-the-story-of-the-tuskegee-experiment.
Definitions/Terms
Tuskegee Syphilis Study: An unethical American research project that involved experimentation of African American men in the south. It tested whether or not syphilis caused cardiovascular or neurological damage; they recruited infected patients and failed to tell the recruited patients that they had a disease that spread through sexual intercourse. Many of the subjects died of syphilis because they were denied any treatment.
Peter Buxtun: The whistleblower known for ending the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. He leaked information regarding the experiment to the Washington Star, causing the experiment to end shortly after the story was published and on the front page of The New York Times.
J. Marion Sims
CDC
Penicillin
US Public Health Services
“Bad Blood”
Macon County
Division of Venereal Diseases
Research Questions
Who were the players that attempted to prevent the Tuskegee Syphilis Study from surfacing in the media?
What other experiments involved unethical practices and minorities? Were they ever given the same attention as Tuskegee?
What was the state of segregation and healthcare at the time of Tuskegee? Are there remnants of health disparities due to race today?
Why was the Tuskegee Study allowed to go on for so long and without notice or halting due to unethical practices?
What were the beliefs of those that participated in conducting the study? Did the represent overall conservative values about coloured individuals before the Civil Rights Movement?
