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How an AP reporter broke the Tuskegee syphilis story

A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A portrait of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller, when she was working for the company, is displayed at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) Former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller works on a novel at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) FILE - In this May 16, 1997, file photo, President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, background, help Herman Shaw, 94, a Tuskegee Syphilis Study victim, during a news conference in Washington. Making amends for a shameful U.S. experiment, Clinton apologized to Black men who went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Doug Mills, File) A copy of former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller's story printed on the front page of The New York Times hangs on a wall of her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) This 1950's photo made available by the National Archives shows a man included in a syphilis study in Alabama. For 40 years starting in 1932, medical workers in the segregated South withheld treatment for Black men who were unaware they had syphilis, so doctors could track the ravages of the illness and dissect their bodies afterward. (National Archives via AP) FILE - In this 1950's photo made available by the National Archives, a man included in a syphilis study has blood drawn by a doctor in Alabama. For 40 years starting in 1932, medical workers in the segregated South withheld treatment for Black men who were unaware they had syphilis, so doctors could track the ravages of the illness and dissect their bodies afterward. (National Archives via AP) FILE - In this 1950's photo made available by the National Archives, men included in a syphilis study stand for a photo in Alabama. For 40 years starting in 1932, medical workers in the segregated South withheld treatment for Black men who were unaware they had syphilis, so doctors could track the ravages of the illness and dissect their bodies afterward. (National Archives via AP, File) FILE - In this 1950's photo made available by the National Archives, a nurse writes on a vial of blood taken from a participant in a syphilis study in Alabama. For 40 years starting in 1932, medical workers in the segregated South withheld treatment for Black men who were unaware they had syphilis, so doctors could track the ravages of the illness and dissect their bodies afterward. (National Archives via AP) Former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller appears in an undated photo at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) Former Associated Press investigative reporter Jean Heller stands near a copy of her story printed in the front page of The New York Times at her home in Southport, N.C., on Saturday, July 9, 2022. In July 1972, Heller broke the story about the U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so researchers could document the disease's effects. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)