MISS EVERS' BOYS (TV)
Summary
This made-for-television movie is loosely based on the real events of the forty-year Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, and focuses on the participation of one dedicated nurse in this study.
The film opens during a 1973 investigation into the Tuskegee experiment by the U.S. Subcomittee on Health. Nurse Eunice Evers is being questioned, and a flashback follows as she makes her statement: In 1930 the spread of syphilis has reached epidemic proportions in Macon County, Georgia, among the predominately African-American population. Evers and her superior, Dr. Sam Brodus, are committed to treating the victims and stopping the spread of the disease. Evers has also become very close with many of the men seeking treatment, particularly her old classmate Caleb Hamphries. Accordingly, she soon has a personal stake in the program. Soon after its inception, however, the program's funding is cut because of the Depression. The federal government offers funds to continue the program, on the condition that Tuskegee run a study identical to one that had been done in turn-of-the-century Oslo. The Tuskegee Study is ostensibly to prove that black and white patients are equally affected by syphilis, as well as to provide treatment for the victims and a chance for the black doctors and nurses to do groundbreaking work. However, the experiment requires that the men be given placebos instead of real treatment for up to a year, in the interest of studying the effects of their illness. Evers suffers a moral dilemma because the men will be without treatment while believing that they're being cured. As a result, she considers leaving the area to take a job in Birmingham.
In spite of her moral crisis, Evers stands by the Tuskegee study. The experiment begins in 1932 with a group of 412 men and full government funding. Evers is essential as a link between the medical staff and patients because she has gained the trust of the men and knows how to keep them involved in the study in spite of deterrents such as excruciating spinal taps. She makes a personal sacrifice by keeping the secret of the experiment from the men, including Humphries, who has become her boyfriend. She does it in the faith that they will eventually get the best of treatment. The strain ultimately causes Evers and Humphries to break up. However, contrary to the government's promises, the experiment continues on with the men going untreated. By 1942, penicillin has been found to cure syphilis, but the Tuskegee doctors refuse to give it to any of the participants. The men are now suffering both physically and mentally from their disease, but Brodus rationalizes that the 412 men are a necessary sacrifice for the greater good of the race, because the study will prove a biological equality between black and white. As she watches all her friends slowly die off, Evers resigns herself to being a permanent part of the study, even at the cost of her personal happiness. As World War II continues, Humphries gets a penicillin shot and joins the army. Years later, he visits Evers and asks her to marry him. However, she maintains that she can't leave her "boys." The film ends by returning to the 1973 investigation, as Evers finishes explaining her forty-year involvement with the experiment. On-screen graphics provide additional historical facts.
Details
- NETWORK: HBO
- DATE: February 22, 1997 Saturday 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:57:56
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:51312
- GENRE: Docudrama; Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Docudrama; Drama; Tuskegee Syphilis Study - Drama; African-American Collection - Drama
- SERIES RUN: HBO - TV, 1997
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Laurence Fishburne … Executive Producer
- Kip Konwiser … Producer
- Derek Kavanagh … Producer
- Peter Stelzer … Co-Producer
- Kern Konwiser … Co-Producer
- Joseph Sargent … Director
- Walter Bernstein … Writer
- David Feldshuh … Based on play by
- Charles Bernstein … Music by
- Dwight Douglas Andrews … Composer, Dance and Source Music
- Carmen Twillie … Singer, "Show Me Lord"
- Alfre Woodard … Cast, Eunice Evers
- Laurence Fishburne … Cast, Caleb Humphries
- Craig Sheffer … Cast, Dr. Douglas
- Joe Morton … Cast, Dr. Sam Brodus
- Obba Babatunde … Cast, Wille Johnson
- Thom Gossom … Cast, Big Ben Washington
- Von Coulter … Cast, Hodman Bryan
- Ossie Davis … Cast, Mr. Evers
- E.G. Marshall … Cast, the Senate Chairman
- Robert Benedetti … Cast, a Senator
- Peter Stelzer … Cast, a Senator
- Donzaleigh Abernathy … Cast, Nurse Betty
- Tommy Cresswell … Cast, Dr. Larkin
- Jadson Vaughn … Cast, Dr. Davis
- Larry Black … Cast, Dr. Hamilton
- Bill Coates … Cast, the Old Man
- Gerald F. Brown … Cast, the Announcer
- Joan Glover … Cast, the Clinic Nurse
- T.S. Morgan … Cast, the Patient
- Kiki Shepard … Cast, Sadie
- Leon Von Brown … Cast, Gillie Dancer
- Andrew David … Cast, Gillie Dancer
- Waverly Lucas … Cast, Gillie Dancer
- Dereque Whiturs … Cast, Gillie Dancer
- Lynwood Cherry … Cast, Musician
- Theodis Ealey … Cast, Musician
- Jeff Mosier … Cast, Musician
- Gary Motley … Cast, Musician
- Bob Nelson … Cast, Musician
- Neal Starkey … Cast, Musician
- Sheila Wheat … Cast, Musician