Miss Evers’ Boys is an eye-opening heartfelt drama that blends top-notch acting with a story line that is sure to bring its viewers to their feet. This was also an HBO movie that achieved five Emmy Awards.
The play tells the story of the Tuskegee experiment,, which was designed to study the effects of untreated syphilis in the Negro male.
The story is told from the perspective of retired nurse Eunice Evers who notices the lack of treatment. She feels that it’s her duty to console the men involved, many of whom were close friends.
In 1932, Nurse Evers joins Dr. Brodus and Dr. Douglas on a project sponsored by the government to study the syphilis epidemic in the generally Black town of Macon County, Alabama. She becomes directly involved with a group of four men who come in for treatment of the disease: Ben, Hodman, Willie, and her childhood friend Caleb. They named their group Miss Evers Boys, after their overseer.
A year or so later a new project, the Tuskegee Study, is funded by the government to study the disease but not to cure it. Caleb refrained from completing the test group. Years later he joins the military and informs his friends of the cure he’d been given to free him of his condition, which he received in the armed services.
Evers is enraged, yet curious about why the others aren’t being treated with this new cure, which brings high levels of suspense in the play.
Based on the true events of actual “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male,” this play is a tight and deeply felt work that supplies significant characteristics for each of its characters. It was penned by former blacklist writer Walter Bernstein. It’s a play that holds a truth that will warm your heart.