a study, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, conducted in Tuskegee, Alabama from 1932-1972, which involved observing the progression of untreated syphilis in African American men. The men were not told they were in a research study; they thought they were getting treatment for “bad blood.” Researchers also steered them away from clinics where could receive penicillin when it became available as a treatment for syphilis in the 1940s.