By Alabama Public Radio
Opelika, AL – Ernest Hendon was the only remaining survivor of the Tuskegee syphilis study. He died Friday at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika. He was 96 years old. Hendon was among 623 men who unknowingly participated in a federal health experiment. Health officials used the men to examine the effects of untreated syphilis. The men were never told they even had the disease. The experiment on the black men from Macon County lasted from 1932 to 1972. National news reports revealed the study, and it was widely condemned. Hendon's funeral arrangements are being handled through Burton's Funeral Home in Tuskegee.