Peter Buxtun was a United States Public Health Service employee who revealed that the U.S. government had been experimenting on Black men without their knowledge, a “study” which came to be known as the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.
Peter Buxtun’s Ebroa
Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Peter Buxtun moved to the United States in his youth, went to the University of Oregon, served time in the U.S. Army as a combat medic, and began working as a social worker for the U.S. Public Health Service in San Francisco. That is where he discovered a terrible secret.
Starting in 1932, the USPHS began a so-called study in Macon County, Alabama. Black men with syphilis were told they were being given free health care and treatment for the disease when, in fact, the disease was being allowed to run unchecked so officials could see how it progressed. This continued for four decades, even after penicillin became the standard cure in 1947. The victims were never told the true nature of the experiment. Over 100 men died due to being untreated; others had severe health complications. The wives of many victims were infected, and 19 children were born with congenital syphilis. None knew they were part of an “experiment.”
In 1965, in the course of doing his job, Buxtun discovered the truth. He opted not to stay silent. He filed a protest in 1966 but was rebuffed. The experiment continued. In 1967, Buxton was disciplined for his actions. He filed again in 1968. Same result: Nothing was done to stop what was happening. It wasn’t until Buxtun leaked the information to the press in 1972 that the experiment on unsuspecting Black men was ended – only after it was revealed to the public. In 1973, a class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the study participants and their families, resulting in a $10 million settlement and the establishment of new guidelines for informed consent in medical research.
Buxtun left the USPHS and went into other work. He spent his later days trying to educate people about the so-called experiment, giving presentations across the world on the topic and displaying that being a whistleblower often comes with a backlash.
On the first report he prepared about the study:
“I directly compared the work of the CDC in Atlanta, in Tuskegee, to what the Nazis had done.” — Interview with The American Scholar, 2017
Tributes to Peter Buxtun
Full obituary: PBS
