Editing Tuskegee Syphilis Study (section)

==Aftermath==
[[File:Charlie Pollard.jpg|thumb|right|100px|Charlie Pollard, survivor]]
[[File:Herman Shaw.jpg|thumb|right|100px|Herman Shaw, survivor]]

In 1974, Congress passed the [[National Research Act]] and created a [[National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research|commission]] to study and write regulations governing studies involving human participants. Within the [[United States Department of Health and Human Services]], the [[Office for Human Research Protections]] (OHRP) was established to oversee clinical trials. As a result, new studies require [[informed consent]],<ref name="HHS-2009" /> communication of diagnosis and accurate reporting of test results.<ref name="UVA-1996a" /> Institutional review boards (IRBs), including laypeople, are established in scientific research groups and hospitals to review study protocols, protect patient interests, and ensure that participants are fully informed.

In 1994, a multi-disciplinary symposium was held on the U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee: ''Doing Bad in the Name of Good?: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Its Legacy'' at the [[University of Virginia]]. Following that, interested parties formed the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee to develop ideas that had arisen at the symposium, chaired by [[Vanessa Northington Gamble]]. It issued its final report in May 1996, having been established at a meeting on January 18–19 of that year.<ref name="UVA-1996b">{{Cite web|title=Final Report of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee – May 1996|url=http://exhibits.hsl.virginia.edu/badblood/report/|website=Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study|language=en-US|access-date=May 14, 2020|archive-date=July 5, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705123612/http://exhibits.hsl.virginia.edu/badblood/report|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Committee had two related goals:<ref name="UVA-1996b" />
# President [[Bill Clinton]] should publicly apologize to the survivors and their community for past government wrongdoing related to the study due to the harm done to the Macon County community and Tuskegee University, and the fears of government and medical abuse the study created among African Americans. No apology had yet been issued at the time.<ref name="UVA-1996b" />
# The Committee and relevant federal agencies should develop a strategy to redress the damages, specifically recommending the creation of a center at Tuskegee University for public education about the study, "training programs for [[Health professional|health care providers]]", and a center for the study of [[research ethics|ethics in scientific research]].<ref name="UVA-1996b" />

A year later on May 16, 1997, Bill Clinton formally apologized and held a ceremony at the White House for surviving Tuskegee study participants. He said:

{{blockquote|What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye and finally say on behalf of the American people, what the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry... To our African American citizens, I am sorry that your federal government orchestrated a study so clearly racist.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Apology For Study Done in Tuskegee|url=http://clinton4.nara.gov/textonly/New/Remarks/Fri/19970516-898.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011090548/http://clinton4.nara.gov/textonly/New/Remarks/Fri/19970516-898.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 11, 2014|date=2014-10-11|access-date=2020-05-14}}</ref>}}

Five of the eight study survivors attended the White House ceremony.<ref name="Banisky-1997">{{Cite web|title=A Survivor's Grace At 95, Tuskegee study participant Herman Shaw prefers reconciliation to recrimination, forgiveness to bitterness.|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1997-08-24-1997236123-story.html|last=Banisky|first=Sandy|website=baltimoresun.com|date=August 24, 1997 |language=en-US|access-date=May 14, 2020|archive-date=September 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924015212/https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1997-08-24-1997236123-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The presidential apology led to progress in addressing the second goal of the Legacy Committee. The federal government contributed to establishing the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care at Tuskegee, which officially opened in 1999 to explore issues that underlie research and medical care of African Americans and other under-served people.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About the Center {{!}} Tuskegee University |url=https://www.tuskegee.edu/about-us/centers-of-excellence/bioethics-center/about-the-center |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210311014629/https://www.tuskegee.edu/about-us/centers-of-excellence/bioethics-center/about-the-center |archive-date=March 11, 2021 |access-date=March 11, 2021 |website=www.tuskegee.edu |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2009, the Legacy Museum opened in the Bioethics Center, to honor the hundreds of participants of the ''Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the African American Male.''<ref name="UVA-1996b" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Legacy Museum {{!}} Tuskegee University|url=http://www.tuskegee.edu/libraries/legacy_museum.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170514231236/http://www.tuskegee.edu/libraries/legacy_museum.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 14, 2017|date=May 14, 2017|access-date=May 14, 2020}}</ref>

In June 2022, the [[Milbank Memorial Fund]] apologized to descendants of the study's victims for its the role in the study.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Reeves |first1=Jay |title=New York fund apologizes for role in Tuskegee syphilis study |url=https://apnews.com/article/politics-health-syphilis-race-and-ethnicity-business-0a393357b7014707cf2dd18454a3cce4 |access-date=June 21, 2022 |work=[[AP News]] |date=June 11, 2022 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Study participants ===

The five survivors who attended the White House ceremony in 1997 were Charlie Pollard, Herman Shaw, Carter Howard, Fred Simmons, and Frederick Moss. The remaining three survivors had family members attend the ceremony in their name. Sam Doner was represented by his daughter, Gwendolyn Cox; Ernest Hendon by his brother, North Hendon; and George Key by his grandson, Christopher Monroe.<ref name="Banisky-1997" /> The last man who was a participant in the study died in 2004.

Charlie Pollard appealed to civil rights attorney Fred D. Gray, who also attended the White House ceremony, for help when he learned the true nature of the study he had been participating in for years. In 1973, ''Pollard v. United States'' resulted in a $10 million settlement.<ref name="Reverby-2009" />

Another participant of the study was Freddie Lee Tyson, a sharecropper who helped build [[Moton Field]], where the legendary "[[Tuskegee Airmen]]" learned to fly during World War II.<ref name="Associated Press-2017" />