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Tuskegee Syphilis Study descendants to seek settlement money

In this Tuesday, April 4, 2017 photo, an unidentified man walks past the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center in Tuskegee, Ala. The Trump administration is opposing a bid to use unclaimed money from a legal settlement to fund the museum, which includes exhibits honoring victims of the government's infamous Tuskegee syphilis study. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves, File)
In this Tuesday, April 4, 2017 photo, an unidentified man walks past the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center in Tuskegee, Ala. The Trump administration is opposing a bid to use unclaimed money from a legal settlement to fund the museum, which includes exhibits honoring victims of the government's infamous Tuskegee syphilis study. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves, File) In this Tuesday, April 4, 2017 photo, an unidentified man walks past the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center in Tuskegee, Ala. The Trump administration is opposing a bid to use unclaimed money from a legal settlement to fund the museum, which includes exhibits honoring victims of the government's infamous Tuskegee syphilis study. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves, File)

By Associated Press 2 min read

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – Descendants of hundreds of black men who were left untreated for syphilis during an infamous government study want a judge to give them any money remaining from a $9 million legal settlement over the program.

The head of an organization for descendants of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study said the money could help fund college scholarships the group provides, and members would like to develop a memorial garden dedicated to the men.

Some of the funds also could go to a county-owned museum located in Tuskegee that has separately requested the funds, but the decision should be up to the descendants, said Lillie Tyson Head, president of the Voices of our Fathers Legacy Foundation.

“It was meant to go to the descendants in the first place,” Head, who lives in Virginia, said in an interview Friday.

The Voices group has sent a letter to U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson asking him to withhold a decision on the money until they have time to hire a lawyer and file documents in the long-running, class-action lawsuit over the study.