Just when I thought I’d heard the worst of the Black struggle in America, I see "Miss Evers’ Boys." I’d never before heard this story and upon going to see the show I didn’t know what to expect. At first I really wasn’t that interested or concerned with it; I was just doing it for Freshman Seminar. However, I walked out of the Ira Aldridge Theater with my eyes opened. I was appalled. It’s so hard to believe that a people could endure all these injustices and not go absolutely crazy. The story of Miss Evers surely should have been the tipping point.
The government took this town of 80 percent blacks and exploited their men into thinking that they were treating “bad blood.” Instead the black men who took part in the experiment were being denied treatment of their syphilis. They were fed arsenic and rubbed with mercury. The government took advantage of sick and uneducated share croppers. Basically, a Jim Crow society created these black men by denying them education and opportunities, and then killed them off. What took place was an attempted genocide. Slavery didn’t work so the next step is to kill blacks off. This injustice took place for decades then finally it could not be justified by the government anymore. The surviving blacks and their families who had been affected by this cruel study were given a few thousand, and long denied treatment.
Decades after that there is finally an apology by Bill Clinton. No one is arrested and no one faces any serious consequences. I thoroughly enjoyed the play and was happy I invested five dollars to see it.
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