The CDC Foundation Launches Scholarship Fund for Descendants of Black Men in the Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee
ATLANTA, Feb. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The CDC Foundation today announced a new endowed scholarship program, Voices Today for Change Tomorrow, for descendants of the Black men who were part of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Study of Untreated Syphilis at Tuskegee and Macon County, AL, 1932–1972. The study represents one of the most well-known, large-scale medical ethics violations in U.S. history. As part of the new scholarship program, the CDC Foundation is striving to raise a $5 million endowment to support the current Voices For Our Fathers Legacy Foundation scholarships, which will grow to provide $100,000 in merit scholarships annually to the study's descendants. To help meet the funding goal for the scholarship program, the CDC Foundation is announcing a $1 million lead gift by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
- To help meet the funding goal for the scholarship program, the CDC Foundation is announcing a $1 million lead gift by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
- November 2022 marked the 50th anniversary of the end of the USPHS Study of Untreated Syphilis in which 625 Black men were denied treatment while being observed as their illness progressed.
- CDC and the CDC Foundation are dedicated to honoring the memories of the men in the study as well their lives.
- For the scholarship program, the CDC Foundation is partnering with Voices For Our Fathers Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit membership organization comprised of the descendants of the individuals in the study.