There is a painful history embedded in the southern part of Indiana, where the horrific Lyles radiation experiments took place. A handful of students from the Lyles Consolidated School were picked out at random and subjected to unusually high levels of radiation, under the pretense of routine medical care. The results were catastrophic.
Where Is Lyles Station and What Is its History?
Lyles Station in the southern part of Indiana, near the border of Illinois. It is a part of Patoka Township in Gibson County. The founders of the town were Sanford and Joshua Lyles, African Americans who moved from Tennessee after they gained their freedom from slavery. It became a town in 1849. The town is known as a Black Settlement, one of many in Indiana, although one of the few that has a well-known documented history and also one of only several that still exist as a functioning town today.
At the height of its popularity, it had a railroad station, lumber mill, stores, churches and school. The population was about 600 people in total in the twentieth century. Unfortunately, weather created a devastating flood in the nearby White, Wabash, and Patoka rivers that destroyed most of the original town. It was part of the Great Flood of 1913 where major rain caused damage to various towns.
What Were Black Settlements?
Black Settlements were towns that were established by African Americans, Indigenous groups as a safe place to live pre and post-Civil War. The first settlement was a town called Fort Mose in 1738 nearby current St. Augustine, Florida before the United States had even became a country. There were sundown towns that were places unsafe for Black people to stay after dark, where they could be beaten or even lynched in “unfriendly” territory.
Often, even after the Civil War or in “free” states, Black citizens were still discriminated against with many refusing to sell homes or property, or rent out places. These laws, known as “Black Codes” or Jim Crow laws, persisted up till the 1968 Fair Housing Act in the United States made them illegal, although the practice still existed.
Many neighborhoods were created or still suffer the effects of redlining, the “discriminatory practice that consists of systematic denial of services such as mortgages, insurance loans, and other financial services to residents of certain areas, based on their race or ethnicity,” according to Cornell Law.
In the case of Indiana, the Indiana Constitution of 1851 had Article 13 that prohibited Black and mixed-race people for moving into the state when many moved up from the south. They attempted to fine individuals $5-10 for entering the state. Despite this the population grew, with over 60 Black settlements in Indiana, with many of the land being sold by Quakers who often didn’t hold the same discrimination as their contemporaries. The Lyles Consolidated School was formed out of three subscription schools in 1919.
What Was the Lyles Consolidated School?
Schools were formed in Lyles Station in 1865. There were three subscription schools, where instead of public schools that we know of now, families had to pay monthly fees for the children to receive an education. These fees were usually under $2. In 1919 the Lyles Consolidation School merged the three. It remained a school until it closed in 1958. Some notable graduates include Alonzo Fields and Matthias Noclox.
By 1922 it became a Black public school with white students going to nearby Blaswin Heights School after an incident where a white student was punished by a Black teacher. Just six years later they would become the site of radiation experiments through the government. However, the parents would not be told what these experiments truly were or the devastation that would happen to the kids who were treated for “ringworm.”
Although the school had been in disrepair in June 1997 the Lyles Station Historic Preservation Corporation was created to preserve the history of the area including the school. It was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 and now serves as a museum.
What Happened to Vertus Hardiman?
Vertus Hardiman was one of the children at Lyles Station that was experimented on. Ten children were selected and parents were told the treatment would be for dermatophystosis or “ringworm.” The children were subjected to high radiation levels, which led to significant disfigurements. Outside the physical issues such as holes in the skull or misshaped heads, many dealt with other health issues and the trauma associated for these now life-long conditions. While the families tried to seek out justice with a lawsuit, the hospital was found not-guilty. Showing how easy it was for the government to get away with tests like this.
Hardiman was one of those children. He spoke out, and his story became a book and a documentary titled Hole in the Head: A Life Revealed. He was born on March 3, 1922 and lived to June 1, 2007. Hardiman worked at the County of Los Angeles General Hospital. He had to wear a hat on his head to cover the open portions of his skull, something the other survivors also did with hats or wigs. It is important that his (and the others’) story is told to give at least some sense of justice they did not receive at the time and make sure that we learn from the terrible mistakes of the past.
What Other Radiation Experiments Were Performed?
Using radiation as an experiment on humans has a long history in the world and the United States. Some quick examples include injecting radioactive elements such as plutonium into patients without consent, giving radioactive iron to poor pregnant women, using soldiers or prisoners for experiments, and using bodies of the dead without seeking the surviving families’ permission. As stated previously these elements could have devastating effects on the human body, leading to deformities, illnesses such as cancer, and of course death.
Records indicate in the United States that the Atomic Energy Commission had been behind endorsing some few these tests since the 1940s. Many of the targets of these tests were the disenfranchised – the imprisoned, children, orphans and minorities. The so-called ‘Radium girls’ also fell victim to the terrible effects of radiation poisoning after painting watch dials with fluorescent paint.
