This history of medicine and health care in the United States is rooted in racism and marked by the mistreatment of Black Americans. These historical structures are woven into modern medicine and their impacts are still felt today. Addressing racism, discrimination, and other systemic barriers within the health care system must happen to effectively promote health equity.
Remembering Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey
Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey were enslaved women from Alabama who changed the history of gynecology. In the 1840s, Dr. J. Marion Sims developed medical tools and surgical techniques related to women’s reproductive health. With neither consent nor anesthesia, Dr. Sims experimented on these women and later became credited as the “father of modern gynecology,” while Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey were left out of the history books. Today we honor these women and the unnamed women who became the mothers of modern gynecology. Learn more in this NPR story.
Honoring Henrietta Lacks
In 1951, Henrietta Lacks sought medical care at Johns Hopkins Hospital after complaining of vaginal bleeding. A malignant tumor was found on her cervix, and a sample of her cancer cells were taken without her consent. For years, Lacks’ cells, nicknamed HeLa cells, have been cultured and used in experiments to study the effects of toxins, drugs, hormones, and viruses on the growth of cancer cells. Her tissue was patented and has generated millions of dollars in profit for medical researchers, but Lacks’ family did not even know the cell cultures existed until more than 20 years after her death. Learn more about the legacy of Lacks’ contribution to science in this video.
The Lasting Legacy of The Tuskegee Syphilis Study
Starting in 1932, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was research conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service in collaboration with the Tuskegee Institute to study to effects of syphilis on the body and aid in the creation of a drug to cure it. Six hundred Black men were initially enrolled – 300 with latent syphilis and 201 without- and were told they were being treated for “bad blood.” The men in this study were misled to believe they were receiving free medical care and researchers disguised placebos as treatment even though penicillin became widely available in 1947. The study lasted for over 40 years, was conducted without the benefit of participants’ informed consent, and caused the death of 128 of its participants. Learn more about the study and reparations here.