In 1932, the U.S. government began a medical program to treat black men for syphilis in the South's only black hospital. Funding was cut off soon thereafter, but money was made available to study the effects of untreated syphilis in black men to determine if blacks and whites were similarly affected by the disease. The program was in place until 1972 when it was exposed to the public. The "study" was administered by Dr. Brodus, a black man, and Nurse...

When the Civil War ended in 1865, more than 4 million slaves were set free. By the late 1930's, 100,000 former slaves were still alive. In the midst of the Great Depression, journalists and writers traveled the country to record the memories of the last generation of African-Americans born into bondage. Over 2,000 interviews were transcribed as spoken, in the vernacular of the time, to form a unique historical record.