What are tuskegee experiments?

Question

i found the word while watching half baked when thurgood talks to the scientist

Answer 1

The Tuskegee Experiment was a clinical study, conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, in which 399 poor — and mostly illiterate — African American sharecroppers were studied to observe the natural progression of syphilis if left untreated.

Eventually leading to major changes in how patients are protected in clinical studies, the study was not without controversy. Individuals enrolled in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study were not required to give informed consent and were not informed of their diagnosis; instead they were told they had "bad blood" and could receive free medical treatment, rides to the clinic, meals and burial insurance in case of death in return for participating.