Miss Evers' Boys

"I solemnly pledge myself before God

to pass my life in purity…

…to practice my profession faithfully,

to endeavor with loyalty,

to assist the physician in his work,

to devote myself to the welfare

of those patients committed to my care."

That's the oath I took, Senator.

Just like the doctors do, I took an oath,

the nurse's oath.

You have to understand, nursing was my life.

We do understand

and respect that, Miss Evers.

And we do appreciate very much

your testifying before us today.

I hope you understand

that the sole purpose of this committee

is to discover the truth

about the public health service program

commonly called "The Tuskegee Study."

That's what we all want, sir.

Good.

Now I understand

you worked on the program from the beginning.

From the very first in 1932

up until I retired a few years ago…

Nearly 40 years.

Oh goodness,

that's longer than I've been in the Senate.

Tell me, Miss Evers,

how did you feel about the study?

Our patients got the best doctoring

they ever had in their life.

But according to the testimony so far, Miss Evers,

there are ways in which this study

sounds like some sort of Nazi experiment.

It was established at Nuremberg that experimentation

without informed consent… You did the best you could, whatever.

There was an epidemic

with all that syphilis going around, Senator.

Life was always hard in Macon County,

but the Depression made it worse.

You just have no idea what it was like down there back then.

We've heard a lot of testimony, Miss Evers.

From some of the patients, from other nurses

and from your supervisor Dr. Brodus.

Dr. Brodus is a fine doctor

who cared, Senator.

I don't care what y'all say about him now.

I was honored to serve under that man.

Are we just gonna let him choke to death?

Well, what do you suggest, Nurse?

We've tried digitalis. We've tried mercurial diuretics.

Maybe I should just cut him open and drain him.

I'm sorry.

I don't mean to take it out on you.

It was a farming accident, wasn't it?

Yeah. He was plowing.

The mule got away from him, kicked him,

crushed his chest.

His heart just won't work.

Is that fluid on the pericardium?

We'll have to notify his parents.

What made you think, boy,

that you were old enough to handle a mule?

His bedclothes are wet. I'm gonna get dry ones.

No. No, wait a minute.

Get away from him. What?

Nurse, I want you to get me a syringe with a large bore needle.

Now!

What did I say? "Cut him open and drain him"?

Maybe I knew what I was talking about.

Now I'm not gonna… I'm not gonna hurt you, son.

I just want to take a look at your chest, that's all. I just want to take a look.

And you take Nurse Evers' hand.

Here it is. And you squeeze it tight.

You can't hurt me. You don't get much of a chance

to hold on to a pretty lady's hand like that, now do you?

I'm not gonna hurt you, son. Am I, Nurse?

No, Doctor.

Aha. That's it. That's it.

You gotta trust the doctor. I'm gonna get you out of this, boy.

You trust him and you'll be up and around in no time.

That's true.

I don't want you with that mule no more.

What's that mule's name? Hang on… what's his name?

Hallelujah.

It was performed by a fine doctor.

And this Dr. Brodus… Is he colored or is he white?

Papa, how many times I gotta tell you

we don't have white doctors at Tuskegee?

The way you've been carrying on, I thought maybe…

I wasn't carrying on. I was just being appreciative.

He saved that boy's life.

What's he supposed to do? He's a doctor, ain't he?

Wait on people doing what they supposed to do

and see how long you wait.

You always did like saving people.

I didn't save him. Dr. Brodus saved him.

I was only doing my nursing job.

Don't you be saying, "only" neither.

You're a nurse

and that's more than just a job,

so don't you go making light of it.

I'm not, Papa.

Unless you want to end up cleaning some white lady's toilet

like your mama had to do all of her life.

No, I have had my share of that.

Ham will be out in 10 minutes.

We didn't slave to send you to a nursing school

for that kind of life.

No, Papa, you did not.

All right then.

All right then.

Come in.

Yes, Doctor?

Oh good, Nurse Evers. Are you still checked out

to drive the district office car? I've got a new job for you.

Do you need me to go somewhere?

If we hurry, we can… We can make it on time.

There's somebody very important

that we have to pick up off the bus.

Dr. Douglas. I'm sorry we're late.

I hope you had a pleasant trip. Yes, I did.

Welcome to Tuskegee. How are you?

Fine. Sure a pleasure seeing you, Doctor.

You too. Bags? Oh, yes.

Here. Let me give you a hand.

Thank you. Sure.

Oh, I forgot my manners. Dr. Douglas, Nurse Evers.

How do? It's a pleasure.

Yes sir.

Dr. Douglas, I think you're gonna find

that Nurse Evers will be a tremendous help to you.

Well, we will need all the help we can get.

And luckily, we've got all the funding we need

from a foundation in Chicago.

Everyone's aware of what a plague syphilis has become

and we're determined to stamp this thing out.

But this problem is just for the Negroes in Macon County.

Yes, and that's why Tuskegee was chosen.

It's one of the few all-Negro hospitals in the South,

in a county that's almost 80% colored.

Now you may not know this,

but you people have one of the highest

concentrations of syphilis in the country.

It's nearly 35%.

We know it, Doctor. I mean, our wards are filled with syphilis

because the white hospitals won't let them in.

Negroes also have more pellagra, pneumonia and TB,

but there is no statistical basis for the belief

that syphilis is a Negro disease

any more than it was a French disease in the last century

or Russian or Polish before that.

No, don't get me wrong, Doctor,

I'm not one of those that believe that Negroes

are inherently more susceptible because of some…

I mean, I voted for Roosevelt.

We'll have to test them first, of course,

give them Wassermann's to make sure. I'll take that, Doctor.

That in itself will be a huge undertaking.

Great pains for great rewards, right?

You don't intend on telling them they have syphilis, do you?

Well, if they have it,

we'll have to tell them something, won't we?

Well, maybe we'd better not use a word they've never heard before.

That'd just scare them off, Doctor.

So what are supposed to tell them?

Just tell them that there's something the matter with their blood.

You don't have to say exactly.

They all know about bad blood.

She's right.

That's what they call anything that's the matter with them.

The main thing is, we have to make them understand

we only want to get them well.

And indeed we do.

I do, you do and the government does.

This way.

We're gonna find a cure for this disease.

We're gonna stop at nothing less.

They doing this for the Negro?

Gotta be a hoodwink in there someplace.

Don't go always looking for the underside, girl.

But I'm always finding it.

These men are being treated for a very bad disease,

and that's more than anybody else has ever done for them,