Black History Month - Tuskegee Institute

Yesterday President OBAMA made his first foreign "state visit" to Canada to meet with Prime Minister HARPER. This has been always been a great tradition, reflecting the unique relationship we have been fortunate to form with The United States of America but in typically Canadian fashion to my knowledge, we have never stood on ceremony about this issue. Nonetheless, it was a historic meeting and one much celebrated in the press. I think Martin Luther KING Jr. would have been enjoying the moment when OBAMA was greeted by Governor General Michelle JEAN and they both strolled down the carpet.

However invoking the name of MLK was not what I intended to focus on for Black History Month. It was this story that I came across at the U.S Center For Disease Control website.

U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee

From 1932 to 1972, the Public Health Service conducted a study on black men with syphilis, who were not offered treatment. In 1972 the US Government started a health benefit program for participants and families and in 1997 apologized for the study. The last widow receiving benefits died last month (January 2009).

In 1932, the Public Health Service, working with the Tuskegee Institute (now known as Tuskegee University), began studying syphilis in a group of black men in hopes of learning more about syphilis and trying to justify treatment programs for blacks. The study initially involved 600 black men – 399 with syphilis, 201 who did not have the disease. The study was conducted without the benefit of patients' informed consent.

During the study, participants were told that they were being treated for "bad blood," a local term used to describe several ailments, including syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. In truth, they did not receive the proper treatment needed to cure their illness.

In the wake of the U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee and other studies, the federal government took a closer look at research involving human subjects and made changes to prevent the moral breaches that occurred in Tuskegee from happening again.

In 1997, President Bill Clinton made a formal apology to the survivors and the wives, family members, children and grandchildren of study participants. He said, "The American people are sorry -- for the loss, for the years of hurt. You did nothing wrong, but you were grievously wronged. I apologize and I am sorry that this apology has been so long in coming."

This is a chilling reminder that many of the "eugenic" theories and practices which were fairly commonly expressed in America, Canada, England, Europe and elsewhere - became the Jewish "Final Solution" under the Nazi's. And it is also a sad reminder of the extent of racial abuse in American History, but I admire that the Americans have faced it and do not "sweep it under the rug".

This is the honourable purpose behind commemorating Black History every February.