The Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Collective Memory

By Anonymous


During the Great Depression, the United States initiated the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.” The goal of the study was to see how syphilis progressed in the body of an African American man. The study included 600 African American men, 399 had syphilis, and 201 men did not. However, they were never informed that they were infected with the disease. Instead, they were told that they were being treated for “bad blood.” They also never gave consent to conduct this study. In 1947, penicillin became the standard treatment for syphilis. However, the men in this study were never offered that treatment. The study continued for another 40 years until it was exposed in the Associated Press in 1972. After the news broke, the Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs “appointed an Ad Hoc Advisory Panel to review the study. The advisory panel concluded that the study was ‘ethically unjustified’.” (Center for Disease Control). The panel soon stopped the study and provided the participants with treatment for syphilis. The Tuskegee Health Benefit Program was formed to ensure that victims were given these treatments. Eventually, the spouses of participants and their children also got these benefits. Yet, this does not take away from the fact that this study has created “medical mistrust and mortality among African-American men” (Duff-Brown 2017). How did the Tuskegee Syphilis Study shape the very intense collective memory of young African American men?

Collective memory is the concept that explains how a group of people have similar beliefs, ideas, and remembrances of the past. In an excerpt of Maurice Halbwachs paper, “The Collective Memory” from page 146 of The Collective Memory Reader (Olick, Vinitzky-Seroussi, and Levy), he defines two elements of collective memory. The first “belongs to a common domain, in a sense that they are familiar or easily accessible to others as well as ourselves. [...] The events of our life [...] are also engraved in the memory of those closest to us” (141). In the case of the Tuskegee study, the knowledge and trauma are known through generations and have shaped the way African Americans feel about the healthcare system. The memory and trauma of what happened are still incredibly prevalent because collective memory is “preserved in groups” (141). According to Eyerman, memory is incredibly important because it “provides individuals and collectives [...] orient who they are [...] Memory in other words is central to individual and collective identity” (305). The memory of the Tuskegee study that has been passed down is one of collective identity and cultural trauma. When the participants learned of their exploitation, there was a renewed sense of collective identity. 

The Tuskegee study has created such a strong collective memory because for a very long time they did not know that they were even in a study. They had lost a sense of identity and autonomy. The mistrust of doctors and the healthcare system is a way to get their identity back, and never be taken advantage of again. Stanford researchers published a paper that explored the current medical mistrust that was formed because of the study. It found that “life expectancy at age 45 for black men fell by up to 1.4 years in response to the disclosure” (Duff-Brown 2017). It contributed to the collective memory because “their paper touched a nerve among some prominent African-Americans, some of whom praised the work as a model for understanding medical mistrust today” (Duff-Brown 2017). Finally, there is some recognition of the mistreatment and manipulation of African Americans by the medical community. In addition to this, in 1997 President Bill Clinton formally apologized for the trial. Herman Shaw, one of the last remaining survivors, spoke at the ceremony about how he is “‘saddened today to think of those who did not survive and whose families will forever live with the knowledge that their death and suffering was preventable’” (Duff-Brown 2017). In Halbwachs framework of collective memory, he indicates that “retains from the past only what still lives or is capable of living in the consciousness of the groups keeping the memory alive” (143). Survivors, family members, and community members will keep this memory and it will continue to be relevant until there is equality in medical treatment.


Works Cited 

Duff-Brown, Beth. 2017. “Stanford Researchers Explore Legacy of Tuskegee Syphilis Study 

Today.” Stanford News, January 6. Retrieved May 4, 2022 (https://news.stanford.edu /2017/01/06/stanford-researchers- explore-legacy-tuskegee -syphilis-study-today/).

Eyerman, Ron. 2011. “From: ‘The Past In the Present: Culture and the Transmission of 

Memory’.” Pp. 139-149 in The Collective Memory Reader, edited by J.K. Olick, V. Vinitzky-Seroussi, and D. Levy. New York: Oxford University Press.

 Halbwachs, Maurice. 2011. “From: The Collective Memory.” Pp. 139-149 in The 

Collective Memory Reader, edited by J.K. Olick, V. Vinitzky-Seroussi, and D. Levy. New  

York: Oxford University Press.

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