The intent of the study was to record the natural history of syphilis in Blacks. The study was called the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.. When the study was initiated there were no proven treatments for the disease.Researchers told the men participating in the study that they were to be treated for bad blood..he PHS began working with Tuskegee Institute in 1932 to study hundreds of black men with syphilis from Macon County, Alabama.