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Black Americans Were Treated Like Guinea Pigs for Four Decades
The distrust it caused continues to shorten their lives to date
The United States government did something that was wrong — deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens.
These were the words of American President Bill Clinton during his public apology in May 1997.
In a rather emotional and honest apology, he ended with the following words:
To the survivors, to the wives and family members, the children and the grandchildren, I say what you know: No power on Earth can give you back the lives lost, the pain suffered, the years of internal torment and anguish. What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye and finally say on behalf of the American people, what the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry.
What was it that the president of arguably the most powerful nation in the world had to publicly apologize for? How could the United States government have done something so horribly wrong that would impact generations of people?
