| The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore and to understand the experience and to identify the impact of the 1932 - 1972 U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Syphilis Study on the lives of female descendants of the original study participants. Although the syphilis study focused on men, a key assumption in this dissertation is that the uninformed participants in the syphilis study were both men and women because the men had wives, girlfriends, and children who were presumably affected in life altering ways. Thus the impact of the syphilis study refers to how the life of the woman and members of her family were affected in a variety of human domains, i.e., cultural, physical, mental, social, and spiritual, these referred to as anthrobiopsychosociospiritual.;An African centered perspective provides a critical analysis of the social forces informing the mind-set of the time, which rationalized the need for the syphilis study and successfully fostered the cooperation of several upstanding Black professionals and institutions who acted as willing collaborators. This dissertation uses a Black feminist-womanist paradigm. It is grounded in African and African American history and uses approaches from narrative practice, modified from narrative therapy based on the works of Michael White, and transpersonal research of Rosemarie Anderson and R. A. White. While Black Feminism-womanism and African American centered paradigms have differences, they share a liberatory aim. Women are asked to intuit (use their intuition) stories their mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers took to their graves. Oral history is the primary method, and constructivism, a paradigm and method of qualitative research using dialectical discourse to obtain meaning, is used for narrative interpretation. A reflection team is comprised of four women: two women descendents, a native Tuskegeean, and the investigator. Ten women were invited to tell their stories and to reflect on their life and the lives of their matrilineal ancestors. A number of themes were revealed: high levels of anger and frustration continue to exist, a host of unanswered questions persist, and the women's perspectives on a range of issues stand in stark contrast to what has been written about the case.;Four themes emerged from the data: (a) the impact the syphilis study had on the lives of the women in several human domains, (b) the phenomena of silence, (c) conflicting forces: Black professional involvement, and (d) action as healing. The investigator and the narrators make thoughtful recommendations laying the groundwork for long overdue interventions to occur. |
