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Lest We forget: On May 16, 1997, President Bill Clinton apologized for the "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male", the "longest nontherapeutic... experiment on human beings" in the history of medicine and public health... That study, conducted under the auspices of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Tuskegee, Alabama, was originally projected to last six months but spanned 40 yearsfrom 1932 to 1972. The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of untreated syphilis in black men. The men in the study were never told that they had syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease. Instead, government doctors told the men they had "bad blood," a term that was commonly used to describe a wide range of unspecified maladies. The study included 600 black men, 399 with syphilis and a control group of 201 who did not have the disease. The men in the study were the sons and grandsons of slaves. Most had never been seen by a doctor. When announcements were made in churches and in the cotton fields about a way to receive free medical care, the men showed up in droves, unaware of the high price that would be paid over the next four decades. In the mid-1940s, when penicillin became the standard cure for syphilis, the Tuskegee subjects were not given the drug. Even as some men went blind and insane from advanced (tertiary) syphilis, the government doctors withheld treatment, remaining committed to observing their subjects through to the study’s predetermined "end point"autopsy. To ensure that the families would agree to this final procedure, the government offered them burial insuranceat most, $50to cover the cost of a casket and grave. The research project was finally stopped after Peter Buxtun, a former venereal disease investigator with the PHS, shared the truth about the study’s unethical methods with a reporter from the Associated Press. On July 25, 1972, news accounts sparked a public outcry that ultimately brought the notorious experimentation to an end. Congressional hearings were conducted, which led to federal legislation strengthening guidelines for protection of human subjects in research. Fred Gray, a civil rights attorney, filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the men that resulted in a $10 million out-of-court settlement for the victims, their families, and their heirs. The study engendered among many African Americans a legacy of deep mistrust that hampered efforts to promote health and prevent disease in this population group. During the White House ceremony, the president directed his words to Carter Howard, Frederick Moss, Charlie Pollard, Herman Shaw, Fred Simmons, Sam Doner, Ernest Hendon, and George Key, the study’s sole survivors, all of whom are more than 85 years of age and the first five of whom were present for the occasion: "[They] are a living link to a time not so very long ago that many Americans would prefer not to remember but we dare not forget. It was a time when our nation failed to live up to its ideals, when our nation broke the trustthat is the very foundation of our democracy. The United States government did something that was wrong, deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. To the survivors, to the wives and family members, the children and the grandchildren, I say what you know: No power on Earth can give you back the lives lost, the pain suffered, the years of internal torment and anguish. What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye and finally say on behalf of the American people, what the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry." Source: Encyclopedia Britannica

PRAYER IN THE MORNING

Can you imagine if you had someone living in your house that pointed everything that was wrong with you and your life in a seriously annoying voice? How long w...ould it seriously take you to kick them out of your house? How about out of your life for that matter? What about that voice in your head? The one that doesn't support you? The voice that tells you that you are not good enough? You're not worthy of success? It's time to kick that voice out of your head because like it or not, your life and what you get is the DIRECT result of what that voice keeps telling you.

As salaamu alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh! Congratulations to our Assistant Imam Bro. Hudhaifah Abdulhayy who has been named the Islamic Community Consu...lting Liaison for the Free Library of Philadelphia with the permission of Allah . He asks for your prayers for Allah to make this a successful endeavor for him and our community, Allahumma Ameen! See more

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