Hey, prime members, you can listen to American Scandal add-free on Amazon music, download the app today.

A listener note, this series is about a shameful chapter in American history.

As part of telling a story accurately, we present the point of view of doctors and others from the period

who express racist and white supremacist views.

Listener discretion is advised.

Charles Pollard isn't used to government doctors.

He's not used to doctors period.

No one here is.

Black people in Macon County, Alabama, which is most people here, they just don't have the money.

If you think you might die, we're sure you try and find a doctor.

But short of that, you figure it out yourself.

That's why today, in late October 1932, Pollard is shocked by the sign he sees outside the schoolhouse

not far from his family farm.

The word suggests that times are changing that finally, maybe somewhere out there cares about what's going on in Macon.

The sign reads, free blood test, free treatment by county health department and government doctors.

You may feel well and still have bad blood.

Come and bring all your family.

Pollard is 26 and feels perfectly fine.

But bad blood? He's never thought of that.

What if there is something wrong?

It's best to get checked out.

So when he gets to the schoolhouse, he joins a line of local people already waiting.

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