Black Lives in Alabama Had No Monetary Value as Human Beings Until 1974
BY: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted on October 3, 2026
Under the terms of a 1974 settlement in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study case, 70 living syphilitic participants received $37,500 each. The 46 living men in the control group got $16,000 each. The 339 deceased syphilitic participants received $15,000 each. The deceased members of the control group got $5,000 each.
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which ran from 1932 to 1972, is the first litigated case that recognized the monetary value of black lives in Alabama as human beings. Of course, black lives had monetary value when they were the "chattel property" of white slave owners.
Blacks in Alabama could not buy life insurance until the 1970s. They could only buy burial policies of up to $300 from small black insurance companies to cover the cost of a cheap funeral.
The first multimillion jury award by a predominantly white jury in Alabama for an injured black plaintiff occurred on November 27, 1985, in Montgomery.
Three black lawyers -- Karen Neal Knight, Billy L. Carter, and Donald V. Watkins -- represented a severely injured Montgomery resident named Stanley Gamble in an automobile-truck accident case where the plaintiff's injuries were caused by multiple acts of negligence that rendered a rented U-Haul truck unsafe.
The brakes on this U-Haul truck failed, thereby causing the vehicle to slam into Stanley Gamble's car four days before Christmas in 1984. As a result, Stanley Gamble was comatose for next several years.
The case of Stanley Gamble v. U-Haul was brought to trial within eleven months from the date of the accident. This was, and still is, a national speedy trial record in a personal injury case.
After a nine-day trial, a Montgomery County Circuit Court jury of 9 whites and 3 blacks returned a verdict on November 27, 1985, for $4.1 million in Stanley Gamble’s favor. At the time, this amount was the highest verdict for a personal injury case in America involving a comatose injury.
Today, the value of a black life in Alabama seems to be very much in doubt, particularly if the person who has caused the death is white. If that person is a law enforcement official, the value of the black life lost is zero.
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