Rev. Jeremiah Wright defended his controversial statements Monday during a press conference at the National Press Club, especially his statement about the origin of HIV.
Months ago, videos of Wright, the former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, making controversial comments while giving his sermon were circulated all across news channels and the Internet.
Wright recently retired from the church, which was the home church of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) for 20 years. Wright married Obama and his wife and served as the inspiration for the title of Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope".
Wright previously said that the American government created HIV and AIDS to thwart the population growth of minorities in the United States. "Based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything," he said.
Wright's mention of the Tuskegee experiment made many research the incident, for many are unaware of how this experiment correlates to his statement.
The Tuskegee experiment, which is formally known as Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, was an infamous biomedical research study in which White doctors infected 399 poor African-American sharecroppers with syphilis to test how the disease is manifested.
The experiment went on for 40 years from 1932 and 1972 and was held in Tuskegee, Alabama, which is also known for the Tuskegee Airmen. The doctors infected the sharecroppers with the disease without the sharecroppers' knowledge nor consent and withheld penicillin, which is the prescribed treatment for the disease, in order to continue the experiment.
Due to the deadly disease, lack of medication and deception of the treatment, the majority of the sharecroppers died. According to Wikipedia, the Tuskegee Experiment was "arguably the most infamous biomedical research study in U.S. history."
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