The Tuskegee Deception: America's 40-Year Medical Experiment

Original Study Protocols and Internal Correspondence

The National Archives houses original study documents from the Public Health Service, including the initial 1932 protocols signed by Dr. Taliaferro Clark and Dr. Raymond Vonderlehr. These papers, along with internal correspondence spanning four decades, were declassified following congressional investigations in 1973. The documents include budget requests, progress reports, and inter-departmental memos discussing study continuation. The files reveal researchers' true intentions from the beginning - to observe "the untreated syphilitic" rather than provide medical care. Particularly damning are 1950s correspondence where officials discuss withholding penicillin despite knowing it could cure the disease. One 1969 memo refers to subjects as "clinical material" rather than patients, demonstrating the dehumanizing perspective that enabled the study's continuation. These documents are partially digitized in the National Archives catalog, though many remain accessible only through in-person research requests. The correspondence provides unambiguous evidence of deliberate deception and medical neglect. Why did it take a whistleblower to expose what was clearly documented in official government files?