On June 12th, Tink Hill started his three-part series of talks with the theme of “can you trust your government?” Part one was about the Tuskegee experiment, where the public health service started a experiment to watch syphilis run its course. They recruited Black men in Alabama, who weren’t told what they have. These were black sharecroppers, who should not be confused with tenant farmers. The crops were shared with the landowners, who got the greater percentage, and kept the sharecroppers tied them by loaning them money to paid back by selling the crops. Their workforce couldn’t leave while owning debts to the landowners. These black sharecroppers had no medical care, and the federal government came in and offered free medical care. To start this “experiment”, they found counties with the highest incident of syphilis cases and used local people to recruit 600 men. About half of the recruited men had syphilis but were not told. Instead, they were told they were being treated for “bad blood.” The study lasted from 1932 to 1972, and despite the fact that by 1947 penicillin was the accepted treatment for syphilis, these men never received that treatment. The study ended when it was uncovered in a news story in the Washington Star and the New York Times. By that time, only 79 of the 600 men in the study were still alive. In 1997, President Clinton apologized to the descendants of the men. The hearings that took place after the study was uncovered led to legislation requiring informed consent for all medical studies. Tink showed as a short video at the end of his talk about the unfortunate story in U.S. History. His lesson from this is know what your government is doing – stay informed!