![A nurse writes on a vial of blood taken from a man who was included in the Tuskegee syphilis study in Alabama, circa 1950.](/findings/spring-2021/images/atl_442_1005x525px.jpg)
Understanding Black Distrust of Medicine
Joel D. Howell
Using the bodies of African Americans without consent is a dark part of US medical history and part of a much larger issue in this country. Even if these widely documented—and incredibly gruesome—experimentations had never happened, the underlying racism that led us to permit such atrocities must still be addressed.