Tuskegee University

Syphilis Study Legacy Committee

In February of 1994 at the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library in Charlottesville, VA, a symposium was held entitled "Doing Bad in the Name of Good?: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Its Legacy." Resulting from this gathering was the creation of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee which met for the first time on January 18-19, 1996.  

The committee had two goals; (1) to persuade President Clinton to apologize on behalf of the government for the atrocities of the study and (2) to develop a strategy to address the damages of the study to the psyche of African-Americans and others about the ethical behavior of government-led research; rebuilding the reputation of Tuskegee through public education about the study, developing a clearinghouse on the ethics of scientific research and scholarship and assembling training programs for health care providers. 

After intensive discussions, the Committee's final report in May of 1996 urged President Clinton to apologize for the emotional, medical, research and psychological damage of the study. On May 16th at a White House ceremony attended by the men, members of the Legacy Committee and others representing the medical and research communities, the apology was delivered to the surviving participants of the study and families of the deceased.

Committee Members Include:

• Ms. Myrtle Adams 
  Chairman, Macon County Health Care Authority 
• Ms. Patricia Clay 
  Administrator, Macon County Health Care Authority 
• Dr. James A. Ferguson (now deceased)  
  Dean, School of Veterinary Medicine 
  Tuskegee University 
• Dr. John C. Fletcher, co-chair 
  Director, Center for Biomedical Ethics 
  Cornfield Professor of Religious Studies 
  University of Virginia 
• Dr. Vanessa Northington Gamble, chair 
  former Associate Professor of History of Medicine and Family Medicine 
  University of Wisconsin Medical School 
  (former Director of the Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care)
• Dr. Lee Green 
  Assistant Professor 
  University of Alabama 
• Ms. Barbara Harrell 
  Director, Division of Minority Health 
  Alabama Department of Public Health 
• Dr. Bill Jenkins 
  Epidemiologist 
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
• Dr. James H. Jones 
  Professor of History 
  University of Houston 
• Dr. Ralph Katz 
  Professor 
  Department of Behavioral Sciences and Community Health 
  School of Dental Medicine 
  University of Connecticut Health Center 
• Ms. Joan Echtenkamp Klein 
  Assistant Director for Historical Collections and Services 
  Health Sciences Library 
  University of Virginia Health System 
• Dr. Susan Reverby 
  Luella LaMer Professor for Women's Studies 
  Wellesley College 
• Dr. Rueben Warren 
  Associate Director for Minority Health 
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  (now Director of the Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care)
• Mr. Anthony Winn 
  Program Analyst 
  Minority Health Professions Foundation