FAMILIES AFFECTED BY THE TUSKEGEE EXPERIMENTS

The wives and children of the men involved in the Tuskegee syphilis experiments’ voices remain largely unheard. They may have unintentionally been exposed to syphilis during this 40-year experiment. Since 1975, the U.S. federal government has attempted to make amends to the families affected by administering lifetime medical benefits to the participants’ wives, children, and grandchildren. Out of the 106 men in the syphilis experiment, only about 50 wives had been tested by 1975, with 27 that tested positive for syphilis and were eligible for the government’s program of health benefits. 

Kimberly Whitley, shown on the right in the image above, discusses her thoughts on her great-great-grandfather being in the control group of the study: 

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So he didn't have it . . . So their reason was if he didn't have it what was the point of talking about it. My family comes from a very conservative Christian background and that disease in my family's eyes was associated with uncleanliness.

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In 2014, the Voices for Our Fathers Legacy Foundation was created from descendants of 623 Tuskegee syphilis survivors to make their voices heard and share their stories.

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Sources:

Oliver, Mark. “The Tuskegee Experiment: The U.S. Government Project That Tricked Black Men Into Dying Slowly.” All That's Interesting, All That's Interesting, 9 May 2019, allthatsinteresting.com/tuskegee-experiment-syphilis-study.

“Voices for Our Fathers Legacy Foundation.” Voices for Our Fathers Legacy Foundation, www.voicesforfathers.org/.

Yoon, Carol Kaesuk. “Families Emerge as Silent Victims Of Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 May 1997, www.nytimes.com/1997/05/12/us/families-emerge-as-silent-victims-of-tuskegee-syphilis-experiment.html.