Nestled in rural Gibson County about 60 miles from Linton, the small unincorporated community of Lyles Station stands as one of the last remaining African-American settlements founded before the Civil War. A symbol of Black resilience and self-sufficiency, Lyles Station has also carried a painful secret for nearly a century — one that still echoes through the walls of its restored one-room schoolhouse.
In 1928, ten African American children from the Lyles Consolidated School were selected by county health officials to receive what was falsely described as a treatment for ringworm, a common scalp infection. Without the knowledge or consent of their parents, these children were subjected instead to high doses of radiation—a procedure that would leave many of them with disfiguring scars, malformed skulls, lifelong pain, and deep emotional trauma.
Far from being an isolated medical misstep, this was a deliberate experimental exposure—a dark example of the kind of racially biased medical abuse that has marred American history…