The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Half a Century of Reconstruction
Before the Civil rights movement from 1954-1968, African Americans could not sit on the same bus, had to shop at different stores, and could not even drink out of the same water fountains as whites. Many people saw African Americans as inferior to whites, and were discriminated against because of their skin color. A majority of white people of the time thought of blacks as actually a lesser person in comparison to whites. For this reason, African Americans were being deprived of not only the rights that were stated in the Declaration of Independence, but also their God given rights of equality, and basic human respect.
During the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans were gaining rights and liberties that

Public Health Service (USPHS) sponsored an observational study of syphilis in black men in Macon County, Alabama (The Tuskegee Syphilis Study). Despite the cure for syphilis being discovered in 1943, the experiment was carried on for almost 30 more years. Letting these African Americans suffer from syphilis was a horrible and unnecessary thing to do when there was already a cure.
James Byrd also faced the issue of undeserved treatment because of ethnicity. On June 7th, 1998 in Jasper Texas, three white supremacists murdered Byrd by dragging him behind a truck for three miles on an asphalt road. Byrd was believed to be conscious most of the time while he was being dragged. They then dumped what was left of his body in front of an African American cemetery (Murder of James Byrd, Jr.). This brutal hate crime was committed out of pure evil intentions and this shows, without a doubt, that there are still some people who hate certain races, simply because of their skin

Especially since racism is already embedded in most of our mind, even if we don't realize it. Everyone has categorized another person in one way or another. We see this struggle of morality in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The main character Hucks goes on an adventure with a runaway slave in the 1800’s. After spending several weeks bonding with a slave named Jim, Huck says “I knowed he was white inside” which is extremely important because Huck discovers that we are all the same inside (Twain). Similar to one of many lessons Huck learns on his adventures, my mother always says “It is what's on the inside that counts.” Unfortunately, not everyone comes to this realization that every human being deserves to treated with respect. Racial stereotypes and prejudices continue to be passed along from family, friends, entertainment, social media, and even music. In Cultural Etiquette by Amoja Three Rivers, she also points out that “All people are people” and there is no true divisions of race between us because we are all humans (Three Rivers, Amoja). I also believe that racism can be destructive against any race, and it is possible for white people to experience prejudice from African American people or other non-whites as