page_title: Tuskegee Syphilis Study
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Tuskegee Syphilis Study / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: Depression-era poster urging syphilis treatment
context_page_description: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, also known as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee, or Tuskeegee Experiment, was a clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the United States Public Health Service. The purpose of this study was to observe the natural history of untreated syphilis; the African-American men in the study were only told they were receiving free health care from the Federal government of the United States.
  The United States Public Health Service started the study in 1932 in collaboration with Tuskegee University, a historically black college in Alabama. Investigators enrolled in the study a total of 600 impoverished, African-American sharecroppers from Macon County, Alabama. Of these men, 399 had latent syphilis, with a control group of 201 men who were not infected. As an incentive for participation in the study, the men were promised free medical care, but were deceived by the PHS, who disguised placebos, ineffective methods, and diagnostic procedures as treatment.
caption: Depression-era U.S. poster advocating early syphilis treatment. Although treatments were available, participants in the study did not receive them.
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