Over two years ago, I was blessed to be welcomed into the SCOOP family by our visionary and powerful Sister Sherri Darden. During this time, I knew that I had an obligation to continue to write for the nameless and voiceless Black people who have become innocent victims of racism and cruelty here in the US and throughout the diaspora.
This level of journalism is very difficult and painful within the larger framework of the aim, which is to ultimately recapture and restore our identity as free, courageous, righteous, self-sufficient, and self-governing people.
The alarming disparities in health care concerning Black and Brown people continue to plague this country. Nearly 40% of Black people don’t have a regular doctor that they can really trust.
Close to 3 million Black children in the US do not have health insurance.
ve health insurance.
Black infants are nearly two-and-one-half times more likely than white infants to die before their first birthday.
Historically, deliberate racial and ethnic health disparities in America’s medical industry contribute to heart disease, strokes, cancer, kidney failure, hypertension, diabetes, high infant mortality, untreated mental illness, and even medical experimentation and unauthorized testing.
We have been able to historically trace inhumane practices administered by official medical authorities throughout our fight for a better quality of life.
Between 1932 and 1972, in Tuskegee, Alabama, the US Public Health Service (PHS) conducted a clinical study on 399 Black male sharecroppers in the late stages of syphilis. These Black men were not told what illness they suffered from or the ramifications of the disease if left untreated, which could include blindness, heart problems, paralysis, psychological disorders, and death. Instead, they were told that they were being treated for “bad blood” when, in fact, white clinical investigators planned to utilize participant autopsies to collect data on the progression of the disease in African Americans.
In 1947, penicillin became the standard treatment for syphilis. Rather than treat our brothers, the scientist continued the study, deliberately withholding penicillin and pertinent information about the medicine’s discovery as standard therapy for the disease. This racist, cruel deception resulted in the painful and suffering deaths of many Black men, as well as infected wives and children born with congenital syphilis.
From the 1940s to the 1990s, US medical research programs, universities, pharmaceutical companies, and major hospitals all used Black men and women as human guinea pigs in prisons.
Philadelphia’s Holmesburg Prison opened in 1896. It was another northern prison built to compensate and replace traditional slavery after the Civil War and the so-called Emancipation Proclamation. Holmesburg Prison was one of the largest county prisons in the US, which boasted a 35-foot high, 8-foot wide stoned wall that surrounded it. Holmesburg’s first 50 years were filled with bloody riots, clever escapes, and violent attacks on guards.
In the early 1960s, other county prisons in Philadelphia were built to lock down the ever-growing modern-day Black slave population. History teaches us that Holmesburg Prison, The House of Corrections, and the Philadelphia Detention Center were used to practice sadistic experiments on our brothers.
Dr. Albert Klingman of the University of Pennsylvania started medical research in the prison system in the early 1950’s. Originally, the Holmesburg pharmacist contacted Klingman about a spreading athlete’s foot epidemic, but Klingman would soon discover the potential for unlimited money and experiments!
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Thank you for reading an excerpt of Khabyr Hadas’ article on scoopusamedia.com. To read more of the article, “Black Hue-Man Guinea Pigs (Pt 1),” please subscribe to Scoop USA Media. Print subscriptions are $75.00 and online subscriptions (Print, Digital and Vizion) are $90. (52 weeks/1 year)
