Many cringe when scientists victimize animals for medical experiments. However, many African American men from Tuskegee, Ala. to Philadelphia have found themselves the victims of “good science” since the early 1900s, some with deadly consequences.

According to Tuskegee.edu, “For forty years between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) conducted an experiment on 399 Black men in the late stages of syphilis. Informed that they were being treated for ‘bad blood,’ their doctors had no intention of curing them of syphilis at all. The data for the experiment was to be collected from the autopsies of the men, and they were thus deliberately left to degenerate under the ravages of tertiary syphilis—which can include tumors, heart disease, paralysis, blindness, insanity, and death.”

Twenty-eight men died directly from syphilis because of the Tuskegee Experiment, with 100 more dying of syphilis-related complications.

Despite the tragic results of the syphilis study in Alabama, the scientific experimentation on Black males continued, as the University of Pennsylvania found more human guinea pigs at Holmesburg State Prison in Philadelphia.

In 1964 Edward “Butch” Anthony entered “the Burg” on drug charges and began participating in scientific experiments, like many of his cellmates, to earn much-needed cash. Inmates participating in the tests could earn hundreds of dollars a month as opposed to the 25 cents a day given for regular prison jobs.

“I signed myself away as a guinea pig, a lab rat. But they told us the tests were safe, we didn’t have nothing to worry about. They paid good money, but we wouldn’t have done them if we were told they were dangerous,” said Anthony who now goes by the first name Yusef.

According to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Yusef Anthony participated in the Penn-conducted Johnson

About the author of this article:

todd smith is the web master for regal mag the preeminent online magazine for african american men