Our first stop - Tuskegee

After leaving admittedly posh Perdido Key, we drove straight through to Tuskegee, Alabama.  Our drive into town showed a town of poverty – most businesses, most buildings had their doors and windows boarded up or broken.  (Later, we saw other areas around Tuskegee Institute in much better condition.) 

We went immediately to the Tuskegee History Museum to learn more about the syphilis study. But I learned oh so much more.  I am going to start with what I learned about the history of our laws relative to Civil Rights in America.  I had had no idea how many laws were passed -- after passage of the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th Amendments to our Constitution!

Civil Rights Acts- 100 years, and counting

I grew up in school learning that the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Acts were both landmark pieces of legislation (i.e. momentous steps forward for civil rights).  And, they were... but I was not taught that almost identical Acts had passed almost 100 years earlier!  Throughout American history, several pieces of legislation have been called The Civil Rights Act. The first passed in 1866! 

•      The Civil Rights Act of 1866 declared that all persons born in the United States were citizens, regardless of race, color or “previous condition” (i.e. slave or free).  President Andrew Johnson vetoed this bill saying that Blacks were not qualified to be citizens.  Congress overrode his veto and it became law. Blacks were given full citizenship – and were guaranteed the right to own private property, enter contracts, vote, etc.
•       The Civil Rights Act of 1870.  Congress banned the use of terror, force or bribery to prevent someone from voting.  Military help was sent to the South to enforce the law… and thousands of Blacks registered to vote for the first time. 
•       The Civil Rights Act of 1871 outlawed discrimination in public accommodation on the basis of race.  (This law was later deemed unconstitutional because the Supreme Court said that the Constitution couldn’t cover acts of individuals.)
•      The Civil Rights Act of 1957.  This act reaffirmed Black voting rights, the end to de facto segregation, and provided equal housing rights.  While weak in enforcement, it opened the door for lawsuits to compel compliance.
•      The Civil Rights Act of 1960.  Established federal inspection of local polls and introduced penalties for obstructing a person’s right to register to vote, or actually to vote.
•      The Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Outlawed segregation in schools and public places.
•      National Voting Rights Act of 1965.  Outlawed the use of literacy tests to qualify to vote, and allowed for Federal registration in areas with fewer than 50% of minority voters deemed eligible to vote.

I wrote all these Acts down because I was horrified by what people lived through – and the hundreds who died –  to get full and final recognition as human beings.  The degrees to which states and individuals went to thwart these laws were unreal.

Think about these Acts as you read about this stop and each of the next … and the timing.  For example, I’ve already covered how in Biloxi, Blacks weren’t allowed on the beach until 1968!  I’ve covered how people were arrested in Hattiesburg in 1964 for attempting to order lunch.  We should remember --- and know that more work remains before The Dream is fully realized in our beloved country.

Syphilis Study

Jim and I knew of the Tuskegee syphilis study, but we wanted to learn more.  Basically, starting in 1932, the United States public health system conducted “an experiment” on African-American men of the Tuskegee area.  The government said that people could be treated for any health symptoms free if they would participate in a study.  A local, trusted

Dr. Vonderlehr and Nurse Rivers

nurse named Eunice Rivers encouraged people to come in for a screening.  The screening included a spinal tap – without anesthetic!  Contrary to what I had thought, people were not injected with syphilis.  But, if they were found be a carrier, they were purposefully not treated -- even after penicillin became widely available and was known to cure it.  

Dr. Vonderlehr, the study’s lead, wanted to watch patients’ progression until their death in order to autopsy their corpses.  And, the study continued …. for forty years!  Even when a man moved away to other cities, the doctors in the new locations were told not to treat him with penicillin.  After Dr. Vonderlehr retired, others doctors continued the study.  

All of this was done in secret.  None of the participants gave consent, or were ever told they had syphillis.  The story broke July 26, 1972, when Jean Heller wrote an article: “Syphilis Victim in U.S. Study Went Untreated for Forty Years.”  Stated in the singular, there were actually 623 African-American men who were left to live - and die - in agony. 

Charlie Pollard, one of the living “subjects,” sued - and regulations stipulating that medical subjects need to give informed consent became the law of the land. Why were these men targeted?  Because they were poor; they didn’t move away often; they were less educated – and they were Black.

Remember Fred Gray

The attorney who sued on behalf of Charlie Pollard was a man named Fred Gray.  Before this trip, I had never heard of Fred Gray, an early Black attorney.  Through the museums of the South, I couldn’t believe the number of important cases that ended with – “the attorney for the plaintiffs was Fred Gray.”  Here’s a sampling:

• 1958:  Challenged gerrymandering of Tuskegee City to exclude Blacks from voting (won)
• 1961: After the severe injuries of Freedom Riders in Alabama by white mobs, Fred Gray sued on behalf of the injured in a suit against Greyhound Bus Company (won)
• 1963: At the start of school year, Governor George Wallace sent state troopers to block integration of Tuskegee High School. Fred Gray argued a winning case that allowed 16 kids to enroll.  (George Wallace closed the high school for all in a counter move.)
• 1964:  Fred Gray won a case proving that Macon County jury selection discriminated against Black selection.
• 1965:  Fred Gray filed the successful suit to ensure police protection of the marchers on the third Selma – Montgomery march
• 1973:  Fred Gray sued on behalf of Pollard and other syphilis study participants (won)

There were more, but you get the gist.  His quote in the Tuskegee History Museum summed up his strategic use of a law degree: “I set out to destroy anything segregated I could find.”

Rosenwald Schools

The campus of Tuskegee Institute was beautiful, full of stately brick buildings on small hilly grounds.  I knew that this college, helmed originally by Booker T. Washington, became a premier Black university.  What I learned was its role in K-12 education.  

Around the turn of the 20th century, a black child in rural Alabama probably went to school in a small shack, if she went to school. Washington reached out to a white Jewish man named Julius Rosenwald to help him build rural black K-12 schools.  Co-owner of Sears and Roebuck at the time, Rosenwald responded!  Their approach:  If white school boards committed to maintenance and black communities agreed to help in construction, Rosenwald would fund a school. The school had to be architecturally sound for the times: two rooms, big windows allowing natural light,  and good heating/ventilation.  Communities rallied and five thousand Rosenwald schools were built across the former states of the Confederacy and some western states.  

More impressive:  According to economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, with time the children who went to Rosenwald schools closed the achievement gap between whites and blacks by two years!  That is, they started three years behind and ended one year behind on grade-level knowledge.  Another little story from history I had never heard that may have lessons for today.

Tuskegee Airmen

After the museum, we went to Moton Field.  Moton Field was the site of flight training for Black military pilot candidates during WW2.  The U.S. Army Air Corps called Moton Field a “military experiment” to see if African-Americans “had the mental and physical abilities as well as the courage to operate and maintain complicated military aircraft.”  They created a nearly complete segregated unit.  As African Americans were needed to fill each job, it became a rare opportunity to learn specialized trades.  Hundreds responded.  The first class had 100 cadets from across the United States. 

In first class of cadets

Ultimately, there were 1000 Tuskegee Airmen and 15,000 support staff.

How did they do?  The military and civil rights success of the Tuskegee Airmen became legendary and is believed to be one of the main reasons that President Harry S. Truman issued Exec Order 9981 to desegregate the US military.

Their story was not an easy one, however.  First commanded by a white officer who argued that the “experiment” should be halted, they were thwarted in getting teachers and aircraft on which to learn.  Then, they got a new commander who said they deserved a chance.  Their final commander was Benjamin O. Davis.  He was one of the first Blacks to graduate from West Point.  (His time at West Point was not easy either.  The entire time he was there, he was subjected to “the silent treatment” from his peers.  He was never spoken to outside of class.)  

Even after the Truman executive order, these airmen were segregated on their bases and, after discharge, at home.  Even officers were not allowed to enter the Officers’ Clubs.  In response, they started the Double V Campaign of World War Two: “Victory abroad against fascism and at home against racism.”  Moton Field became a National Historic Site in 1998, and in 2007 the Tuskegee Airmen received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor bestowed on American citizens. 

Wow! By the end of one afternoon, my head was already spinning.  Jim and I ended the day relaxing at Jim and Nick's Bar-B-Que.

 This was February 28th - as close to my birthday as you could get this year.  What a great way to spend the last day of my 65th year - learning, learning, and learning some more!

Birthday Night Dinner