Plaque at National Institute of Health Honors Men in US Public Health Service Syphilis Study 

Topic:
Health Equity Population Health Voices for Our Fathers Legacy

On September 20, 2024, the National Institute of Health (NIH) held a ceremony to unveil a plaque honoring the 625 Black men in the US Public Health Service Study of Untreated Syphilis at Tuskegee and Macon County, Alabama, 1932-1972, in the National Library of Medicine’s herb garden. The celebration also marked the digitization of the National Library’s archival records from the study. 

The ceremony was part of commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the National Research Act, which created federal rules to protect human participants in research in the wake of the shutdown of the unethical and racist study in which participants were not informed of their roles and syphilis treatment was withheld.  

About 100 people attended, including NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli and other senior NIH officials, Voices for Our Fathers Legacy Foundation (VFOFLF) President Lillie Head and other VFOFLF board members and friends, representatives of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and CDC Foundation, and Milbank Memorial Fund President Christopher F. Koller. VFOFLF and the Milbank Memorial Fund have been partners since Milbank’s 2021 apology for its involvement in the study.