Miss Evers Boys from Movies That Move We -01/2/2025

Miss Evers Boys from Movies That Move We -01/2/2025

my thoughts and trasncript + video
https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2835&type=status

my thoughts
1932 to 1972 the Tuskegee experiment went on.
I learned of Tuskegee in the home and community centers at elementary age and in high school in the educational system.
...
I remember a scene in the film Giant 1956 when the character played by rock Hudson says to the character played by Elizabeth taylor that the white doctor of the family is not for public use or use for other people, other people in this case were Mexican immigrants in Texas. That scene encapsulates the overall problem. The healthcare industry in the usa has always been a business that is used by whites to display biases toward the non white. The movie Alice 2022 shows this in multiple ways. And the problem with healthcare as an industry is it is historically expensive. Healthcare is not cheap. Consider that car company workers/steel company workers/government workers, the cost of their healthcare overtime is the biggest bill. 
in amendment or commented
Healthcare has always been historically for the have's not all, and you see that throughout humanity even today, even in countries in western europe deemed universal in care. I can't wait for your first show in black history month:) 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJrcIlzfQhc

TRANSCRIPT 0:13 [Music] 0:25 [Music] 0:30 hey everyone welcome back to another 0:32 edition of movies that move we today we 0:37 will be talking about Miss ever's boys 0:41 um now I hope you not not like me if you 0:43 hadn't heard about this film before and 0:45 thought it was about medar Evers and his 0:48 mom and them it's not it's not this is 0:52 um it's a fictionalized telling of the 0:58 Tuskegee uh project 1:00 and if you don't know what that is let 1:03 me tell you a little bit about it um 1:05 Tuskegee Alabama there was 1:08 a pretty decent population of black men 1:12 who had 1:14 syphilis and um you know the government 1:17 saw it and said hey perfect opportunity 1:20 for us to explore how this the progress 1:25 of this 1:27 disease and so they 1:30 setup shop in 1:32 Tuskegee told these men hey we're going 1:35 to treat you for the condition they 1:38 didn't tell them that they were research 1:40 subjects they didn't tell them they 1:42 weren't getting 1:43 treatment and these men did not give 1:47 consent to basically be used as guinea 1:51 pigs this project ran from was it 1:57 1932 to 2:00 19 no 1932 to 2:05 1972 okay so they were allowing men with 2:08 syphilis black men with syphilis to just 2:13 ride the disease out um and it's not a 2:16 comfortable disease you you can get it 2:19 it can go 2:21 dormant it can come back up there's like 2:24 five stages to the condition you'll end 2:27 up with skin lesions there are some 2:29 people who who survived it the biggest 2:32 problem here beyond the fact that they 2:35 were experimenting on black bodies was 2:38 that when it was found out that 2:41 penicillin was The Cure none of these 2:44 men were given the option never told 2:47 that some of them would die if they like 2:49 took it well no in reality no yeah but 2:53 I'm just saying in the movie like that's 2:55 what they were they were telling them 2:56 that if if you take it you you could die 3:00 which wasn't true but talking about the 3:04 movie this is it's not based on a 3:07 specific story but it is inspired by a 3:12 nurse who did work with some some 3:15 patients during that time so we have in 3:19 the role of nurse Evers um Alfrey 3:25 Woodard Caleb humph is her love interest 3:29 who is is played by Lawrence Fishburn 3:31 and I believe he's one of the producers 3:33 of the film um Dr Douglas is played by 3:37 Craig Sheffer and he is the white Doctor 3:40 Who is leading the um experiment um we 3:46 have Dr Sam brus who's played by uh Joe 3:50 Morton AKA Papa Pope those of you who 3:53 know no um he is the black doctor that 3:58 is leading it because of you have 4:00 something like this going on you got to 4:01 get black people to talk to black people 4:04 um Willie Johnson is played by Oba Baba 4:09 tund hodman Bryan is played by Van 4:13 couter Ben Washington is played by Tom 4:16 gosam Jr so 4:20 Caleb uh Willie hodman and Ben they're 4:25 referred to as Miss ever's boys and all 4:29 of them them were 4:31 participants in the study in this film 4:36 um and then the late great aie Davis 4:39 played um Alfrey woodard's father Mr 4:43 Evans so this is going back like I said 4:48 1930s 4:50 Tuskegee black people were still working 4:52 in the fields there were still 4:54 sharecroppers um and it was a big deal 4:57 that 4:58 she uh Unice Evers was a nurse you know 5:03 she's working in the hospital she's 5:05 working with doctors she wasn't a 5:07 servant or anything like that she 5:10 recognized it her father recognized it 5:12 it was the type of career that could 5:14 have taken her 5:15 anywhere um when this came up she was 5:19 the head nurse 5:22 under Dr broadis so Joe Morton she was 5:27 working with him and he said hey 5:30 I'm taking you with me we're going to to 5:33 Tuskegee there's something happening 5:35 down there that they want us to be a 5:37 part of that happened to be the area 5:40 where she grew up so Caleb she was 5:43 already familiar with because he used to 5:46 pull her Pigtails in 5:48 class so there was some relationship 5:52 there and her relation built with the 5:55 other three men to the point that you 5:57 know they were performers in the 5:59 community Comm they name their band 6:01 after her um the whole thing gets 6:05 sticky because at a certain point she 6:09 realizes that wait a 6:11 minute we're we're not treating them 6:14 we're just doing research and she was 6:17 excited at first because the 6:20 government's paying for it they're 6:21 giving these guys they're they're going 6:23 to help the black people and there were 6:25 a handful of people who were wey but 6:27 when they heard what I get a free meal I 6:31 can get free rides and all this other 6:34 you know the government is catering to 6:35 me they were like all right sign me up 6:38 so I'll let you take it from here what 6:40 what were your thoughts about well first 6:43 of all I'm going to ask the question I 6:45 usually ask is this something you 6:47 learned about in school no not at all 6:50 and what was crazy was when I when 6:53 I because I was actually the one that 6:55 chose the 6:57 movie when I saw it 7:00 I never even really heard about it but 7:04 when I saw it I was like oh you know 7:05 what based off the description I was 7:07 like this might be a good watch it seems 7:09 like 7:10 something that um might be educational 7:13 because this is something again we 7:15 weren't taught about in school so to 7:18 watch it and then like even down to the 7:22 way things were kind of broken down to 7:25 these men when they're coming into their 7:27 community and telling them what they're 7:29 going to do and how the government is 7:31 funding this and everything like that it 7:34 was 7:35 so it was kind of surreal for me to 7:38 watch cuz it's just like they really 7:40 kind of felt like they had to not only 7:43 bring Miss Evers and the doctor in the 7:46 black doctor in 7:48 to kind of facilitate or help facilitate 7:52 these conversations with these men but 7:55 it was almost 7:56 like oh we have to kind of dumb it down 7:59 for them too because whereas the white 8:02 doctor that came in was kind of like hey 8:05 you know I want to get technical with 8:07 these guys and let them know the exact 8:09 diagnosis Miss Evers and the other 8:11 doctor involved were like no we should 8:15 probably kind of tell them something 8:18 different I don't think they were 8:21 dumbing it down I 8:24 think okay let me not say that yes they 8:26 were but by saying blood like oh well 8:29 it's something in your blood like I'm 8:32 and she explained that what she said to 8:34 to the doctor 8:36 was you have to talk to them in their in 8:41 their language if you tell them that 8:45 they have a virus they're going to panic 8:48 and we won't have anyone to complete the 8:50 study with so they understand illness is 8:54 something in the blood so that's what 8:57 we're going to tell them that there's 9:00 something in the blood we're gonna give 9:02 them some treatments to to help heal 9:06 them and they'll be more willing to go 9:09 along with it if we phrase it in terms 9:11 that they comprehend okay okay that's 9:15 like a lawyer trying to speak to you in 9:18 legal vernacular and you're going my 9:19 rights or what and there was a scene in 9:21 the part or there was a scene in the 9:22 movie 9:23 where the the white doctor is like 9:26 telling them what he's about to do and 9:28 what testing they're about to kind of go 9:31 through and everything and why they're 9:32 being tested for this and they're just 9:34 all sitting there looking at him like 9:37 you going to do what and Miss Evers kind 9:40 of had to step in but I just felt like 9:42 throughout the whole 9:43 film there were so many things that and 9:47 what was crazy was there was kind of 9:48 like that little bit of a contrast 9:49 because here it is you know they're kind 9:51 of talking like that to the rest of them 9:53 they're not giving them full information 9:56 as to what's going on and Lawrence fish 9:59 Burn's character um Caleb Caleb 10:04 he he actually was kind of already 10:07 educating himself you know he let Miss 10:09 Evers know look like you don't think I 10:12 can read I'm going to the library and 10:14 I'm looking this stuff up myself yeah 10:17 and he asked for a book cuz he was like 10:19 I want to know more about this exactly 10:22 so he kind of even though he was also 10:24 not giv a lot of 10:26 information Miss Evers did kind of offer 10:28 up a little little bit of information to 10:30 him in the beginning 10:31 but he kind of already knew in the back 10:34 of his mind certain things and something 10:36 wasn't right yeah so he was kind of 10:38 already hip to what was going on but 10:42 unfortunately these other guys that were 10:44 involved in this process they just 10:46 didn't know and they kind of like leaned 10:49 on Miss Evers a little bit to kind of 10:51 take them through this process yeah um 10:55 and it's unfortunate because if they 10:58 were a little bit more 11:00 honest and even a little bit more 11:03 instead of using them as guinea pigs 11:05 actually got them the help that they 11:08 needed they would have been fine you 11:11 know they would have lived normal lives 11:12 you know um oh my gosh I keep drawing a 11:16 blank with his name Caleb when he went 11:18 to the military he said look I got that 11:21 penicillin shot because one this was my 11:24 only way to get into the military 11:27 properly but two like I'm not messing 11:29 around my health like I'm doing whatever 11:31 I have to do and he was kind of trying 11:34 to encourage the other men to do the 11:36 same 11:37 but the the the role of the medical team 11:42 in this 11:44 situation was to just monitor the 11:47 progress of the disease and keep them 11:51 from getting treatment elsewhere yeah 11:54 and there's a scene in the film where 11:56 one of the guys um he's like I can't 11:59 take it anymore Caleb takes him to a 12:03 hospital to get the penicillin and the 12:05 nurse turns around looks at the 12:07 clipboard and says no you can't have it 12:10 and they were like why can't he get it 12:14 and she said because you're on the list 12:16 I can't give it to you cuz he was a part 12:18 of this experiment so all of the 12:20 hospitals in the area had the names of 12:23 all of the the the men who were being 12:27 researched and they refused them care 12:31 when they came to it and in this 12:33 situation it 12:35 was uh Willie Willie was the dancer in 12:39 the group you know he was hopping up and 12:41 down you know dancing like they do at 12:43 the Cotton Club and he had dreams of 12:44 getting there and it started to affect 12:47 his Mobility so he was like I can't I 12:49 can't live like this I need to to have 12:53 it fixed Caleb didn't tell him exactly 12:57 what was going on even though though he 13:00 had an 13:01 ankling and he did try to talk to Unice 13:05 about it and say okay what aren't you 13:07 telling me and she was like I can't I 13:10 can't and I think part of the reason why 13:13 she said she can't a um she was told 13:17 that she can't she shouldn't and then 13:19 the other part was she was ashamed 13:21 because once she 13:24 realized what this really was MH she was 13:30 like I I can't tell anybody that I'm 13:33 knowingly a part of this and she was 13:38 offered an opportunity she was about to 13:41 take the opportunity to go back up north 13:45 for for 13:47 work and she changed her mind because 13:50 she was like these guys need me I can't 13:54 leave them in other words I help put 13:56 them in this predicament I can't aband 13:59 she went through a tremendous like 14:01 internal struggle to the point where it 14:04 even affected the relationship she had 14:05 with Caleb because it was like here it 14:08 is they were in love they kind of wanted 14:10 to go away together and all that but she 14:13 had the guilt of kind of how this whole 14:16 process started and then the guilt of 14:18 like kind of what happened after that 14:21 how these men were affected and then 14:24 here it is you know Caleb comes back 14:25 from the war and everything and he's 14:27 like look like you know it the deed has 14:30 been done this is already happening like 14:32 we need to just go start our lives and 14:34 she's like I can't leave these guys 14:37 behind like I just can't do it and it it 14:40 it unfortunately affected their personal 14:44 lives because it's kind of 14:46 like had this experiment not even 14:49 happened none of them would be in this 14:51 predicament at all so right and so um 14:57 back to reality 14:59 um a lot of things came out of this time 15:05 period rules were put in place um once 15:09 this was re was revealed and you know 15:13 the public expressed outrage over it new 15:16 policies were put into place to make 15:19 sure that you know people were aware of 15:24 when they were a part of medical 15:26 research so now you are in invited to 15:30 clinical studies you don't just become a 15:33 guinea pig because someone says you know 15:35 what I want to see how long this person 15:37 survives if they have XYZ disease you 15:42 have to be offered you have to be 15:44 compensated you have to be treated like 15:47 a human being and not a lab rat that's 15:50 required by law um there are 15:55 institutional review boards so one set 15:58 of do s can't come up with this 16:00 experiment run it privately and then do 16:04 what they want with the information if 16:05 you're going to have a clinical trial 16:08 then there's a review board to make sure 16:10 that you are following all processes and 16:13 protocols that are laid out to make sure 16:15 that the patient is cared for um and you 16:20 know this this movie kind of speaks to 16:23 and you being a Med medical professional 16:25 you're aware of some of this um it kind 16:29 of speaks to what impacts uh mortality 16:33 rate amongst 16:35 African-Americans and while it has 16:39 improved there's still room for 16:43 improvement plenty of room for 16:45 improvement because the mortality rate 16:48 birth rate between black women and white 16:51 women there's still a gap there same 16:54 thing for breast 16:57 cancer there's still a gap there and 17:00 even and I can speak from my own 17:02 experience when trying to get um 17:06 assistance with health 17:08 issues you probably going to have to go 17:10 through as a a black woman you're 17:12 probably going to have to go through a 17:14 few doctors before you can get yeah what 17:18 you need I had a talk with my doctor the 17:20 other day and she was like oh I 17:22 recommend this doctor and I was like 17:25 uhuh went to them and I didn't even get 17:28 into it with her about why how racist 17:32 this doctor was towards me I just said 17:36 no and I think that's where I related to 17:40 Caleb because he was like I'm advocating 17:44 for myself for myself I'm here but I 17:47 have a lot of questions that I need and 17:49 I love you know I love that about his 17:50 character because I feel like and I try 17:52 to kind of impress this upon the 17:54 patients I work with in general because 17:57 as a human being like you have to be you 18:01 have to be researching you have to be 18:04 thoughtful and thorough with your own 18:06 health care like you have to be 18:08 questioning these doctors you know and 18:10 asking them about this stuff because 18:13 they don't know it all they don't know 18:15 at all there are some doctors that go by 18:17 the book or they are just trying to sell 18:20 the these you know medications to to get 18:25 perks and things like that it's kind of 18:27 like you have to be your own Advocate 18:30 you have to research yourself because 18:32 here it is in this scenario it's like if 18:35 he didn't do that research on his own 18:37 and like kind of take that extra step 18:40 and try to figure things out on his own 18:42 he would have been just like some of 18:43 those men that that ended up dead 18:46 because it's like you know you got to 18:48 kind of ask more questions and care more 18:50 about your health and not just listen to 18:53 what a health care provider or whatever 18:55 is telling you all the time yeah there 18:58 was one guy and I I didn't write his 19:00 name down in the notes did all the 19:02 research looked him up his name was 19:06 Charlie I can't remember his last name 19:09 now I'll try and put up a picture of him 19:12 but he was one of the um last survivors 19:16 of the Tuskegee 19:19 experiment and the reason why I 19:22 remembered him is because they they did 19:24 a a report about him and he 19:29 wore a hat at all times because again 19:32 when you get syphus you if it's not 19:34 treated or treated quickly you start to 19:37 get lesions and they they kind of 19:38 represented that in the um in the movie 19:42 where these guys had like marks on their 19:45 face he had marks on his 19:50 scalp and so he used to wear a hat to 19:53 hide 19:54 it but he was and which president was it 19:58 I don't remember if it was no no no no 20:01 no no cuz this was in like the '90s 20:03 shortly before he passed but he was 20:07 given some kind of medal okay by the 20:10 president 20:11 for um his his involvement and survival 20:16 because black people are rewarded for 20:18 surviving um he was given a reward for 20:22 that but that man suffered through all 20:26 of that and you know I think he died in 20:30 I want to say he passed away in 20:33 2009 darn I wish I had notes on it but 20:35 I'll try and put that up at the 20:37 end all in all as far as historical 20:42 content I feel like this was pretty 20:45 accurate even though it's a 20:46 fictionalized movie I think it was 20:49 pretty accurate if you're not aware of 20:52 the Tuskegee experiment I definitely say 20:56 watch it go down the rabbit hole get 20:59 online do the research um and once again 21:04 sit your kids down to watch it you know 21:08 I think the news just broke today that 21:10 apparently at the federal level Black 21:12 History Month is being cancelled 21:15 so look don't let it be canceled in your 21:18 house celebrate educate make sure you 21:22 know about stuff like this because as we 21:24 can see history is starting to repeat 21:26 itself in a very backwards way so that 21:30 being said hope you enjoyed this review 21:33 don't forget to like share follow 21:35 subscribe to our YouTube page also our 21:39 Facebook page even though I'm trying to 21:41 move us off of meta completely because 21:45 reasons um our group on Facebook is 21:48 called movies that move we you can also 21:51 find me on the spill app download it 21:56 it's aiv it's nice and quiet over there 21:58 under my page which is Nay wres n i ke 22:03 wri I Tes and also on fan base same name 22:08 nay 22:10 writes and YouTube where movies that 22:13 movie is the name of the playlist we 22:15 have more than two years of uh movie 22:19 discussions that you can check out and 22:21 hey we like comments on the old stuff so 22:23 feel free but definitely let us know 22:26 what you thought of this movie and and 22:29 um what are we doing I don't think we've 22:30 decided on the next movie we haven't 22:32 decided on the next movie but there are 22:35 some Runner UPS I know the next two that 22:39 we're looking at is um the piano lesson 22:43 and fences those are like the top two 22:46 options for the next Go Round right and 22:49 so we'll keep you posted on that there 22:52 will be no show next week but the first 22:55 week of 22:56 February we're going all in we're 22:58 celebrating black history mon over here 23:00 we are we don't care who don't like 23:03 we're celebrating 23:05 ourselves anyway thank you so much for 23:07 joining us and until next week we'll see 23:10 you later bye bye