Ridgefield Allies

Today in “Hidden” History is a daily listing of important but little-known events illustrating the range of innovators, contributors, or incidents excluded from formal history lessons or common knowledge. Hidden history is intended not as an exhaustive review, but merely as an illustration of how popular narratives "hide" many matters of fundamental importance. Bookmark this page and check daily to quickly expand your knowledge. Suggest entries for Today in “Hidden” History by clicking the Contact Us link. Entries for May 16:

Date	Type	Event
1947		Lesbian poet, essayist, educator, and Black feminist community activist Cheryl L. Clarke is born Washington DC. With her life partner, Barbara Balliet, she is co-owner of Bleinheim Hill Books, a used and rare bookstore in Hobart, NJ. Her younger sister is novelist Breena Clarke, with whom Clarke and Balliet organize the Hobart Festival of Women writers each summer. Her scholarship focuses on African-American women's literature, black lesbian feminism, and the Black Arts Movement in the United States. Retired from her work in higher education, she maintains a teaching affiliation with the Graduate Faculty of the Department of Women and Gender Studies, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and serves on the board of the Newark Pride Alliance. Learn more.
1997		President Bill Clinton formally apologizes at a ceremony at the White House to the surviving “Tuskegee Experiment” victims. The Tuskegee Experiment was an abusive study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Experimenters enrolled 600 impoverished African-American sharecroppers. Of these men, 399 had latent syphilis, with a control group of 201 men who were not infected. The men were promised free medical care, but were deceived by the PHS, who never informed subjects of their diagnosis and disguised placebos, ineffective methods, and diagnostic procedures as treatment. The "study” was extended for 40 years, without informing the men that they would never be treated. None of the infected men were treated with penicillin despite the fact that by 1947, the antibiotic was widely available and had become the standard treatment for syphilis. The study continued until 1972, when a leak to the press resulted in its termination on November 16 of that year. The study caused the deaths of 128 of its participants, either directly from syphilis or related complications. The 40-year Tuskegee Experiment has been cited as "the most infamous biomedical research study in U.S. history." Its revelation has been an important cause of distrust in medical science and the US government amongst African Americans. Learn more.
2012		The North Carolina legislature considers a bill recommending compensation for victims of the state's forced sterilization program. Beginning in 1933, and continuing into the 1970s the Eugenics Board of North Carolina oversaw approximately 7,600 forced sterilizations. In contrast with other eugenics programs in the United States, North Carolina's board enabled county departments of public welfare to petition for sterilization of their clients, including some girls as young as ten years old. Approximately 60% of the women sterilized against their will in North Carolina were African American. Learn more.