Cover Art
Cover Art
Artist’s Statement: Tuskegee Men During the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which lasted from 1932 to 1972, doctors from the U.S. Public Health Service studied the progression of untreated syphilis in rural African American men who were misled to believe they were receiving free health care. Doctors involved in the study abused their role as medical experts to direct participants, updating records with their weight and physical condition and regularly testing their blood to check the syphilitic status of participants who were in the nonsyphilitic group. Yet, throughout the 40-year span of the study, the participants never provided informed consent or received any explanation for why they had to endure painful tests, such as spinal taps done without anesthesia, which eventually caused physical harm and even death for some participants. I created the collage image on the cover of this issue to highlight the black church’s role in recruiting research subjects for the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. A number of
Academic Medicine, Vol. 90, No. 5 / May 2015
men who participated in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The depiction of black men at the bottom of the collage shows rural farmers who were recruited for the experiment. These men were members of the black church in their respective communities. Many of these men were direct descendants of field slaves. They learned the skills of farming from their ancestors. Eventually they became property owners of the land their ancestors once worked on as slaves.
Tuskegee Men
black churches in and around Tuskegee, Alabama, served as recruitment grounds for participants in the study. Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church is the church featured in this collage because it is often depicted in archival documents as one of the primary recruitment grounds for the
Acknowledgments: Although the original image of the church was photographed by the artist, the additional original image was provided by the Tuskegee University Legacy Museum, Tuskegee, Alabama, and the National Archives and Records Administration, Southeast Region, Morrow, Georgia.
Obiora N. Anekwe, EdD, MS O.N. Anekwe is a New York City Teaching Fellow in special education, Boys and Girls High School, Brooklyn, New York; e-mail: [email protected].
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Cover Art
Artist’s Statement: Tuskegee Men During the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which lasted from 1932 to 1972, doctors from the U.S. Public Health Service studied the progression of untreated syphilis in rural African American men who were misled to believe they were receiving free health care. Doctors involved in the study abused their role as medical experts to direct participants, updating records with their weight and physical condition and regularly testing their blood to check the syphilitic status of participants who were in the nonsyphilitic group. Yet, throughout the 40-year span of the study, the participants never provided informed consent or received any explanation for why they had to endure painful tests, such as spinal taps done without anesthesia, which eventually caused physical harm and even death for some participants. I created the collage image on the cover of this issue to highlight the black church’s role in recruiting research subjects for the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. A number of
Academic Medicine, Vol. 90, No. 5 / May 2015
men who participated in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The depiction of black men at the bottom of the collage shows rural farmers who were recruited for the experiment. These men were members of the black church in their respective communities. Many of these men were direct descendants of field slaves. They learned the skills of farming from their ancestors. Eventually they became property owners of the land their ancestors once worked on as slaves.
Tuskegee Men
black churches in and around Tuskegee, Alabama, served as recruitment grounds for participants in the study. Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church is the church featured in this collage because it is often depicted in archival documents as one of the primary recruitment grounds for the
Acknowledgments: Although the original image of the church was photographed by the artist, the additional original image was provided by the Tuskegee University Legacy Museum, Tuskegee, Alabama, and the National Archives and Records Administration, Southeast Region, Morrow, Georgia.
Obiora N. Anekwe, EdD, MS O.N. Anekwe is a New York City Teaching Fellow in special education, Boys and Girls High School, Brooklyn, New York; e-mail: [email protected].
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