Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, May 16th, 1997 in the East Room of the White House, President Bill Clinton issued

a formal apology for the Tuskegee study of untreated syphilis in the Negro male.

This apology was, as even Clinton would concede, too little and far too late.

But nevertheless it was the government formerly owning up for its role in running what was eventually a 40 year study to determine the effect of untreated syphilis in black men.

The men in the study which started in the early 1930s were never told that they had syphilis, they were told that they had quote bad blood, and many were denied treatment to tragic consequences.

The Tuskegee study is a notorious and shameful chapter in

American medical and governmental history. Here to discuss it and the Clinton

apology and the legacy of all of it are as always Nicole Hammer of Columbia and

Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello there.

Hello Jody. Hey there.

So we have said the words Tuskegee and then something after a number of times on this

pike we talked about the Tuskegee Institute which is now called the

University we've talked about the Tuskegee Airmen I think we have made references to the Tuskegee experiments.

So, you know, let's start at the very basic level because I think I get confused and I think people can be,

how are these related? What are all these things? You know everything seemed to have happened in Tuskegee.

Maybe we just give a little 101 of what's happening in Tuskegee.

Sure. So there's Tuskegee the town. that's the name of the town in Alabama.

There is also the university or the school which is initially called Tuskegee Institute.

And the Tuskegee Airmen were trained in Tuskegee, Alabama, which is why they're called the Tuskegee

Airman. But some of these blend together and then some of them are completely separate.

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