The CDC Foundation announced the creation of an endowed scholarship specifically to support the descendants of the 625 Black men who were denied syphilis treatment in the Tuskegee, Ala. Study of Untreated Syphilis between 1932 and 1972.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has also committed a $1 million leading gift to the fund, it announced in a Feb. 7 news release shared with Becker's.
"This scholarship is a step toward correcting an inexcusable violation of medical ethics," CDC Director Mandy Cohen stated in the news release. "It seeks to uplift the descendants of the Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee and takes steps toward rectifying a difficult part of our public health history."
As part of the scholarship endowment, the CDC Foundation is also looking to raise an additional $5 million to support scholarships within the Voices For Our Fathers Legacy Foundation, which in time will grow to distribute $100,000 annually to the descendants.