1997/11/01 by Vanessa Northington Gamble · 2 citations
Health Professions · Medicine · Psychology · Nursing · #Child and Adolescent Health #Healthcare Systems and Challenges #Primary Care and Health Outcomes #Distrust #Syphilis #Shadow (psychology) #Context (archaeology) #Public health #Interpretation (philosophy) #Health care #Medicine #Sociology #Political science #Gerontology #History #Law #Family medicine #Psychology #Nursing
paper · pdf · doi:10.2105/ajph.87.11.1773
openalex publication_date 1997/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study continues to cast its long shadow on the contemporary relationship between African Americans and the biomedical community. Numerous reports have argued that the Tuskegee Syphilis Study is the most important reason why many African Americans distrust the institutions of medicine and public health. Such an interpretation neglects a critical historical point: the mistrust predated public revelations about the Tuskegee study. This paper places the syphilis study within a broader historical and social context to demonstrate that several factors have influenced--and continue to influence--African American's attitudes toward the biomedical community.